Guard Dog
by jenni3penny
Summary: "The decision to slide her tongue against his was about as involuntary as the reflex of drawing the weapon up between them was, the muzzle nubbed hard into his chest."
1. Chapter 1

There would never be an element of surprise to his arrival. He had to know that as he sidled up her well lit sidewalk, his thumbs hooked up in the pockets of his jeans and his shoulders down drawn. His chin had the downward tuck of an ashamed little boy and his boots sounded against the sidewalk louder than they usually would have now that the bike engine had been cut to a deafening silence.

"It's two in the morning, Scotty." Jarry let her shoulder lay into the frame, the door itself cocked just enough to guard against the fact she had a Glock safely palmed in her right hand. "This better be good."

The smile he turned up at her wasn't anywhere near true and it surprised her to realize that she knew the difference between his pure amusement and a put on prettiness. "I wanna stay."

"I don't know." She squinted a glance up the sidewalk to the escort that was still haunting his lagging frame from the street. "You keep telling me that you've gotta go."

His face seemed to pale sheepish as he followed her glance back to where Quinn was easily relaxed astride his own bike, both the large man's gloved hands pressing his knees. Chibs made a grunted noise of agreement as he nodded and turned his eyes back toward her, stepping faster up into the door space than she expected. Her back straightened on its own, an unforgiving reflex that tensed her thighs and ached into her shoulders.

"Where's your weapon, Jarry?" Now his smile was visceral and real and the scars disappeared into a wealth of warm dimples, his voice a rushed whisper that just barely preceded the way his lips caught hers.

The decision to slide her tongue against his was about as involuntary as the reflex of drawing the weapon up between them was, the muzzle nubbed hard into his chest. A laugh tripped off his lips as he pulled from the kiss and arched a dry glance down over the department issue sidearm. "Hello there, lovely."

"Safety's still on." She shrugged slowly as he used the back of one hand to shy it away, his glance drifting over her hair too softly to be anything but suddenly intimate and almost intruding.

"I wanna stay." He repeated softly, mirth in his eyes even though the closeness of his face allowed her to see how tired and worn ragged he was. "Whatcha say, Ally? Spend some time in the gutter with me. We'll look for stars."

"You're so full of shit." She hummed the words back over him as she shook her head and leaned harder into the doorframe, nodding to where Quinn had stood up from the saddled seat of his bike, watching warily. "Go unleash your guard dog."

"Aye?" he nodded questioningly, his eyes a bit more aware than they had been. "That's a yes?"

"It's a limited offer." She couldn't keep from letting a piece of a smile tip her lips. "Be on my side of the door when it locks."

She watched him put his fingers to his lips and sound off a sharp whistle, taking a few steps back with a grin.

"I have neighbors." She hissed out toward him, brow knit in annoyance. "You could show respect."

"I respect ya, Lieutenant." Chibs shrugged off as Quinn stepped up into his back, the two of them leaning into each other in a manner that was fashioned of implicit trust.

She envied it a little, the comfort of the mannerisms.

She envied the trust he leaned into the other man.

And that she tried to ignore, instead focusing on the long line of him in the sidewalk's light.

* * *

"You sure about this, brother?"

Chibs nodded into a shaded grin. "Aye. She's a prettier piece than you are, Quinn. She'll watch my backside and enjoy it."

"Jax said - "

"Jackie Boy knows how to find me here." Filip softened his tone. "It's a Sheriff's house, boyo. Ain't no place safer in Charming, huh?"

The other man rolled his eyes into a half chuckle that sobered quickly, "Watch yourself, VP. There's a big difference between getting play and being played."

The Scot winced into the implication but had to slowly nod into the veracity of the other man's statement, blowing out a slow breath and turning a quick nod toward the door. His glance started at the top of her and drifted down the fall of dark hair, the thrown back shoulders and the way her arms crossed under the comforting curves of her breasts. A tank top and leggings that clung just right had him lingering over the length of her before he shrugged back to the other man.

"There are days I'd rather die wrapped up by a beautiful woman than while shedding greed's blood, ya know?" Chibs had both hands lifted in explanation as he stepped backward toward the door, a bittersweet half smile painted on his face.

The other man tossed off a laugh as he waved, heading slowly back toward his own bike as the door shut closed behind him.


	2. Chapter 2

"You knew that Henry Lin had Doctor Knowles murdered." The cutting edge of her tone was in complete contrast to the softness of her hands as she raked the cut down off his shoulders and back, pausing as he hissed into a sudden twinge of pain. "What?"

"Nothin'." He shrugged the leather lower off his arms and swung it down, catching the collar up into his fingers as he fully turned into the front of her. "Don't wanna talk about it."

"What happened?" her discriminating glance at once amused and concerned him.

"Jarry." He sighed into frustration. "Nothin' happened."

"Bend over then." She shunted into him, her hips gliding against his in a way that brought a growl up from the bottom of his throat.

Instead of playing into her concerned demand he jerked his hands against her hips and tugged her even tighter, letting his weight lean into hers so that her hands braced into his chest. "You first."

"I want to know." There was a sudden sweetened whisper to her voice that disarmed him, and a matching plead in her eyes that actually had him trusting in the show of concern.

"Threw down with some trash. Trust me, Ally, he deserved the whomping he got." He whispered the words into her sharply angled jaw line, feeling her head tilt away to bare her throat to the rasp of his beard and the brush of his lips. He laid his tongue onto skin that tasted sharp and bright and warm at once.

"You knew," her whisper washed heat on his ear, "about Lin."

"Aye." He razed his teeth on skin before laying his tongue against the reddened mark.

Her hands suddenly had his head jolted up straight and in a shock of defensive posturing he'd jerked her so tightly into his chest that her lips were nearly brushing his and her eyes were dark points that he could barely focus on. "You knew about Lin."

Chibs blinked once into the accusation in her voice, resignation paling his features. "Aye, I did. And y'know where we stand on things like that."

The pause in her breathing and the perfect stillness of her was a stop in time, looping them together in moments that neither nor never existed.

They couldn't stay here.

Not in this place where she was a woman he wanted to crave but couldn't bend for…

It could kill them without letting them die.

She was gracious and so was her hand as she stroked her fingers against the line of his nose, "You must be a very important man to have your very own guard dog."

"You or the clown on the bike?" It was the second wink he'd given her in twenty four hours and as much as she wanted it to annoy her independent woman ways, it actually softened the frustration that had pinioned her spine straight.

"You don't need me to protect you." She pressed the words into his lips, swiping her tongue against his before kissing words into his jaw. "And I don't need you playing protector either. We're grown ups, Filip."

"She says to the man who saved her pretty ass in an explosion." The lagging tiredness of his brogue was still tinted with teasing.

Ally just smiled and it lit into her eyes, "Pretty sure you were already looking for a reason to climb on top of me."

The loud break of his laughter was a warm precursor to his arms looping her up in more comfortable heat than she'd expected. "You came after me, Lieutenant."

"And you came back, Vice President."

She let her head tip back as his mouth downed along her throat and aimed straight for her breasts, lips traveling her neckline while one slowly sliding hand stroked along her ass. Althea let her eyes dip closed arms sliding to ride along his shoulders and settle there as he curled her into an arch, forcing her to press up into the way he was driving the fabric of her shirt lower with his mouth.

"This is going to end badly." She sighed the words into the room and enjoyed the way he growled annoyance at the interjection of reality.

"Why don't you stay here with me, love?" he was laying his mouth against hers again and she let him drive the sudden roughness of the kiss he was giving her. "Where it doesn't matter."

"It matters." She stated matter of factly as he tugged at the bottom hem of her shirt, allowing him the movement even though her tone was argumentative.

The groan he laid between her breasts made her sigh again and instead of fighting the way he walked her back into her bed, she let him make the movements. Staying with him touch for touch.


	3. Chapter 3

"The Cu Sith," his voice was a whispering wander that was trailing along her collarbone, his right hand drawing a softened circle against one uncovered thigh, "was a feral beast."

"Scotty - "

"Hush." He rushed the word nearer to her shoulder as he stroked his fingers up under the sheet that she'd crumpled between her legs, his eyes lifting to catch hers as he tickled along the inside of her thigh. "I'm teachin' you something here. Learn awhile, Althea. It won't kill ya."

Ally let her eyes drift shut on a half smirk, rolling her hips tighter into the turn of his hand as he shifted up over her side, his weight leaned heavily on his left arm. The back of her hand was wedged into the center of his chest and she ticked her knuckles against the beads he was wearing as he pulled her thigh up and close.

"She's a stalking wolf. Green in the eyes."

He was watching the muscles in her face go lax and he dipped his mouth quickly against hers to catch her up in surprise, smiling into the way her fingers caught curled against his throat while he stroked his tongue slowly against hers. He couldn't help letting a groan grate along her tongue.

"Are you calling me a dog, Telford?" her brow was so sharply arched as she pulled back that he couldn't help chuckling into the accusation plainly showing on her face.

"None such." He whispered back against her mouth before licking and nipping against her bottom lip. "She hunts silently. Not a sound. A harbinger. A guard."

"You are." She was tugging tightly but teasingly against his beard. "You're a bastard."

He laughter was another play of heat on her and she just banked back into the enjoyment of it, weariness tucking her eyes closed as his fingers stroked suddenly higher. A slip of a moan passed off her lips and he watched the slow way her head turned as she blinked up, his fingers already teasing into the dampness he'd left there.

"What are you hunting for, Cu Sith?" there was a sudden seriousness in his eyes that rattled and wrecked the lulled mood he'd created in the supposedly safe darkness of a four am détente. "Why prowl me?"

"I don't know." Her head marginally tipped back and forth against her pillow and the admittance in her tone had been full with surprised honesty.

He blinked as his thumb circled against her clit, drawing a flutter in her lashes as she sighed her head farther back on an arch. "I believe you."

"Filip?" her eyes were suddenly just as feral as the character in his taunting story.

"Aye?" his lips were breaking along her throat again.

"Could you please just shut up and make me come again?" the innocence in the way she murmured the words along his temple was such a brightened contrast to the seriousness of his words and the honestly of her request that he barked a sudden break of laughter into her jaw.

His brows lifted as he grinned into a nod and stretched over her, enjoying the way she dragged her arms against his shoulders. "That I can."

Ally nodded as she traced an arch around the cut on his brow. "I'd appreciate it."

"Oh, I know you will."

* * *

"In a hurry?" the first twist of smoke off his cigarette preceded him and, at first, she didn't dare look at his reflection in the bathroom mirror. Not wanting there to be any chance that she could find him in any way adorable in his early morning mussiness. She'd seen it before and it had led her to being more than an hour late.

"Well, some foreign bastard kept me up until four in the morning reciting the entire annals of the Celtic pantheon." The words bounced off the mirror and back toward where he was leaned in the doorway and she heard the chuckle he cast up at her back.

"Annals?" he snorted and gave her a quick glance in the mirror that she suddenly found unavoidable, stilling the mascara wand in her hand as she watched him piece the cigarette from his lips with forefinger and thumb.

"Don't tempt me." she spoke softly.

Chibs lifted his shoulders into a swaggered shrug, his steps slow but intent. She dipped her eyes closed from the way he'd hooked his pants onto his hips but hadn't buttoned or belted them. Ally exhaled into the way he angled into her back, one of his hands brushing slowly over the fabric of her uniform shirt before he bent a kiss into her shoulder, lips warm through the fabric.

"Just saying g'morning." His voice hushed along the back of her head and smoke hazed around them as he continued toward the shower. "I'll be outta here in fifteen."

"I didn't mean that you had to rush." She tried to soften her words toward apologetic as she watched him tuck the cigarette in his lips and lean into the shower, cranking the hot water toward blasting.

"I know." He smiled past the smoke that was still tucked in his lips, his accent curling the words up into something like affection. "Back to reality, Lieutenant."

She blinked into a wincing nod but smiled into the way he was dragging down the denim from one hip. "I told you not to tempt me."

"Come on in." he sucked down the last of the cigarette before dipping the butt under the running water and tossing it into the garbage, laughing broadly into the cocked glance of derision she gave him.

Ally leaned into the sink, closing the mascara as she very blatantly watched him strip and step into the shower, her glance raking his tattoos and down his chest and back up to the cocked way he was staring back as he dunked his head backwards under the spray, curtain still wide open.

"Coffee?"

Chibs nodded into the interested way she was searching for something of a tether or connection in his eyes and it brought a smile onto his lips. "Please."

"You really did compare me to a dog." She shook her head slowly as she dropped the mascara into her make up bag. "I shouldn't make you anything."

He make a tsk-ing noise against his cheek and winked once again, his grin deepening as he scrubbed his hands into his hair to wet it, "She Wolf."

"Shut up."


	4. Chapter 4

It had been a far and away number of years since a car backfiring had made him jump but he'd done it none the less, shoulders lifting into the way he ducked his head down and guarded his center with his back curved outward.

"Jesus," Rat was already jogging past him on the way to the chained fence, "I told her to bring it by later. Not at eight in the morning."

"Get that shite in the garage quietly, huh?" Chibs was frowning tightly as he squinted at the low riding boat of a car that was sputtering and heaving street side. "It's dead on its heels, yeah?"

"Yeah." Rat was waving it off as he turned into a full run toward the gate. "I'll get it in, VP."

Chibs shook his head, fingers working into his brow in a sudden swing of unexpected annoyance. There was a headache working up a riot behind his eyes and the all too cheery California morning of sun and double sun was only jacking up his perturbation. He stalled his steps at the tables that were perched near the clubhouse door. Slowly Chibs pried the pack of cigarettes from his pocket, piecing one out before tossing the half crumpled pack onto the table before the other man. Tig unwrapped long fingers from his coffee cup and curled them over the pack but his hand stayed momentarily still.

"Jumpy this morning?" Tig's face seemed overly pale and his eyes were bleary, as though the coffee hadn't effused enough clarity throughout his waking brain fog.

Chibs shrugged into it as he lit the cigarette and sucked down hard, letting the lighter clatter to the table as well. "What's Tiggy doing up with the sunshine?"

"Thought I'd get some hours in." the other man shrugged slowly into the quieted admission. "Think better when I'm working."

The Scot nodded in understanding, smiling into agreement as he straddled the bench of the table, drawing the coffee forward as Tig lit one of the cigarettes and leaned elbows first onto the table. The Vice President took a sniff at the strong brew before taking a hard swallow, ignoring the fact that now the tingling burn of strong coffee tasted a hell of a lot like the soft lips of a suddenly familiar brunette.

"You took off last night." Tig grasped the mug back and curled one long fingered hand around it. "All good?"

"Needed to work off a little energy." Chibs couldn't save himself from smiling into the words. "Let off a little steam."

"Yeah, I bet she's good for that." Tig's glance was lifted toward the sputtering car that was rolling closer to them and missed the winced accusation that unintentionally narrowed into the Scot's eyes. "Exhaust is shot."

"Engine's on its way out too. You go under, I'll go over." Chibs nodded toward the vehicle.

Tig just pressed up from the table with a cocked grin, coffee in hand and cigarette hanging from his lips, "Bet she's good for that too."

"Y'can go fuck yourself, Tiggy."

"I'll schedule it for later."

* * *

He was thankful that the other man seemed to want as much quietude as he did and appreciated the comfort of having a silent compatibility. Tig seemed nearly as distracted as he felt and Chibs sighed out his thanks as they started working on opposite ends of the doomed car, digging into something they could just manage with their hands. The problem was that the use of his hands had seemed far more enjoyable hours before and he wasn't too far above letting those memories layer into his thoughts one by one. Sure, it wasn't the only problem he had on his over sized plate, but it seemed to be the one that his brain wanted to juggle around.

Because his brain had stopped-sudden-still about the time she'd kissed him goodbye with both her hands along his cheeks, as though the world was a fair place and they'd be about the dinner table in a few hours, talking about their day. Like normal people.

Normal people didn't crawl between the other side's sheets and lay her back on a moan that he proudly thought coulda possibly woken the neighbors.

And his brain, git that it was, hadn't yet worked past that moment to meet up with the one he was in.

"Fuck." He hissed the word roughly out and shook out his suddenly stinging left hand long after the blood of a scraped knuckle had bubbled up and washed his skin a ruddy red. "Damn it."

"You all right?" Tig's voice seemed less concerned and more a requirement of longtime brotherhood.

"Just outta my head." Chibs explained in a suddenly quieter tone, jerking one of the rags from the tool rack a few steps away, wrapping it around his knuckles as Trager shifted up from the back end of the car, leaning his hip into the dented back side.

"Juice or Jarry?"

It irritated him. Another man's voice curling such heat around her name - or was he imagining a teasing tone?

It irritated him more that he wasn't more concerned with Juice and what was coming than he was with her at the moment – or was he using her as a foil?

Jealousy wasn't his bag. And he wasn't about to start laying into that mess of a bed.

"Pick a fuckin' target." Chibs hissed out, keeping his head down though he met the other man's eyes with uplifted honesty.

Tig just shaded him a smile that said he knew more than he was willing to vocalize and for some reason, that just kicked up the Scot's anger like dust between them.

"What?" Chibs asked with no particular inflection besides his accent.

"Nothin', man." Tig lifted his palms and stepped backwards, aiming back to the opposite end of the car. "I didn't say a word."

It was the knowing look on the other man's face that had him sharply inhaling through his nose and dropping his head back in frustration, eyes screwed shut.

He had to distance her. Distance himself, rather. All while keeping pressed up close to her.

Use a battered hand to rebuild a crooked wall.

Better neighbors and all that.


	5. Chapter 5

"How are ya, sweetheart?" he made sure to pass his hand against her back as he leaned into her shoulder, curving comfort into her side. Lyla was the softer sort and while she wasn't necessarily naïve, she was a few shades brighter in innocence than the rest of them.

The blonde just shrugged and shook her head slowly as she straightened her shoulders and aimed her back up from the way she'd been working at Red Woody's accounting books. She angled the Scot a slow shrug before wiping the heel of her palm into her jaw, head shifting back and forth in a speechless round of grieving.

"Aye." Chibs nodded as he leaned over her paperwork and lifted the half emptied bottle that was perched beside her. "Me too."

"The funeral costs for the girls are going to be astronomical." She spoke slowly and intentionally gently. "You guys need to be prepared for that. Because I'm not sure which stone you want me to squeeze blood out of here."

"We know." He nodded in response as he cracked open the spin top on the whiskey bottle. "It'll be handled."

"Chibs - "

"I said," he interrupted her rushed frustration. "we'll handle it. When Bobby finds you the funds you use 'em. Got it?"

Her too wide eyes suddenly flared in what he could only see as a mixture of grieved accusation and fear. "And don't ask questions?"

He just took a long swallow from the bottle before nodding, stepping away before the knowledge in her young face was too much for him to brush off.

* * *

She didn't realize she'd slammed the door closed until the frames on the wall rattled and echoed behind her. Ally forced herself a slow exhalation, breathing back in through her nose as she aimed each boot step in a balanced line toward her desk. She faced it squarely, avoiding the cocked imbalance of the empty chair before leaning her palms into the edging of the aged desk. Her glance scattered quickly over the files that she'd spread over it, left hand shifting the lamp farther to the edge so that she could line the photos from Diosa into the center, banking the files for various players and shot callers in an outcropping spiral around them. Lin's crew, both those alive and deceased, that was where she was trying to focus.

Trying, anyhow.

She forced another calming round of oxygen through her lungs as she tugged at the most recent statement from Teller regarding the massacre, scanning it quickly. She didn't mean to let anger become a visceral thing, but it swelled up warm from her lungs anyhow. Her fingers brushed the report momentarily before she reached for the surveillance shots she'd ordered up of the street outside Scoops and the parked vehicle that had been readily identified as one of Lin's.

She wasn't above using the resources she had at hand to try to do the job.

She wasn't above playing a few rounds of robbing and paying with Peter and Paul.

But then, that was the snag…

She'd been feeling more like a Judas in the wake of a dead harem of hookers.

Jarry ran one hand over her face and bit into her bottom lip, letting her arms curve against her torso as she banked a glance farther to the right and the statement from Gemma Teller, Queen Crow. Ally chewed deeper into her lip and slowly shook her head back and forth.

She wanted it all to be legit, she wanted it all to be so goddamn easy. That Lin had made such a bold and brazen move, and that Teller's mother had just been in the right place at the right time. And that everything that had come falling down was the domino affect of Jericho's walls. She wanted to believe that there would soon be a settling of this dust. And she wanted to believe that, of all the possible lingering lies, she could believe in the truth of a certain Scot.

But beyond the blood-pool rippling out around them she'd told herself maybe she could. Maybe on the frayed up edges of this thing, he was fighting toward her instead of against. Reality told her that really, there were only two possibilities. One, that he was playing her far farther than general expectations would imply. That she was just a fuck he was taking along for a ride in case he planned on being a part of the fallen rubble when the dust came down. Or, the second option, that he was feeling in darkness for a grappling point to pull himself back up from something she just didn't have enough information to understand.

Sure, there were other variables, but none that she was naïve enough to believe in. She didn't for a moment believe that they trusted one another all that far for throwing. And even less likely was the possibility that in a few short days they had built enough of a chemistry to be anything more than comfort in an unforgiving environment.

But he had caused her to question just often enough – with his worry that she was using him, his accusation of greed, his body block when the world shattered and scattered up around them. The apology that was so often dark in his eyes when he blatantly lied to cover for the club, as though it were an intentional tell to imply some truth.

The fact that in the daylight, when she'd unthinkingly and stupidly grabbed him into her for a kiss, he hadn't pulled away from the reaching.

Instead, he'd given back what he got. He was all fair play in leather and the taste of him was becoming a certain sweetened opiate that maybe she should cut cold.

She wondered fleetingly if she even could.

And where did that leave them?

She glanced back to the desk, not knowing where an awkward a match as they made would piece into the puzzle of photos and reports and death certificates that were piling up. The unnatural law that ruled over Charming dictated that in short order, she could very well be one more of those certificates, apologetically signed off by her boss – very sorry to her family for the loss. And she was reminded with that thought that he'd clearly told her to lay low, that he didn't want her hurt in the middle. It had been his weak moment warning. And she was doing her best not to see it as anything more than his better angels and guilt. Or, even worse, a fear for losing a possible in to the law.

She was doing her best to not see anything in any of his actions.

Unfortunately, her best was coming up shorter than she'd like.


	6. Chapter 6

_Author's Note: Unfortunately, this was written about a day and a half before 'Greensleeves' aired. So... it doesn't at all fit the current storyline. But I wanted to post it anyhow because, well... it was already written. Thanks for reading!_

* * *

"If you wanna go, you should." Bobby's voice was gritty but also breathy with some sort of unexplained knowing that raised hackles Chibs didn't even realize he'd been owning.

"Got nowhere to go, brother." The Scot shrugged, backing the sweat from his forehead with his hand, avoiding ridging his eyebrow with the rings he wore. "Told the Prez I'd help Montez."

"Quinn and I can help Montez put the new stools in." Bobby waved off as he leaned his upper body weight into the ice cream counter, intentionally leaning his head at an angle to catch Chibs' glance. "Go ahead. Check in when you get there."

"And where exactly am I going?" one of his hands flared opening between them as he rolled his spine into the edge of the bar, leaning his elbows back in a supposedly carefree balance.

"You've been cagey all day." Bobby grunted and a slow smirk spread his lips as he stared at the younger man. "And moody as hell. And Quinn has a big mouth."

Chibs swallowed down a growl and shook his glance off his friend, wiping his fingers against his beard as he stared toward the new windows that had not yet been finished and cleaned.

"I don't know." He finally gave in to a desperate laugh. "I don't even know what I'm doin', Bobby. She's a bloody cop."

"You like the way she feels?" the other man asked quickly, though he'd had the grace to lower his voice and lean smiling into the question.

And he couldn't help but grin into the answer, a groan in his lungs as he gave Munson a long look, "Not kissin' and tellin'. Feckin' perv."

Bobby just grinned, "But?"

"Aye." Chibs rolled his eyes back in his head and clipped his boot heel hard into the floor, groaning again into his friend's loud chuckle of laughter.

"And she doesn't make you feel like you're any less than you know you are?" Bobby's face was a natural well of concern.

"Not intentionally." Another grin rode his lips as the hushed sound of her voice echoed into his head. "And not when it counts."

Bobby lifted his hand and waved his fingers in a slowly circular motion, his eyes brightening in a tease, "And you wanna take another ride on the Merrily We Go Around?"

Chibs just gave him a sardonic look that made the answer more than obvious.

"Then go. Forget all the other shit, man." Munson was already pushing away from the counter and heading toward the tools that were scattered along one of the booth tables, picking up a hammer and swinging it between them, "Take what you can, when you can. We know you're with us, Chibby. Don't look back until she gives you a reason to."

"And if she does?" Chibs shrugged into the question, a sudden weight of worry pressing down on his humor.

"She's a woman." Bobby shrugged it off easily as he studied the hammer. "Of course she will."

* * *

"Y'need a hand with that?"

She was startled by the warm flush of questioning in his voice and more than a bit rattled – more because her sense of awareness had failed her than anything else. She'd known she was distracted while moving through the grocery store parking lot but she hadn't known by how much or by how far. And before she could decided how slack she'd become in her discipline, he'd already run his fingers into her spine and up to where she'd let her hair down. His fingers were teasing the tips of its darkness while he curved into her side.

"How did you know I was here?" she flicked him a tightened glance.

"Low jacked your car." He shrugged with a flippant and sarcastic tone and angled his hands up under one of the paper bags she was carrying.

"Filip - "

"I asked around." He sighed off and stepped back, waving his hand toward her car slowly. "People know who the sheriff is, Ally."

"That's bullshit." Her eyes slimmed even farther. "Are you having me followed?"

"Gracious little thing, aren't ya?" he snorted as he shook his head, looking so ridiculously out of place with a bag of produce clutched into the leather of his cut. "That's what you think of me?"

Ally slowly let a smile curve her lips before turning from his half glare and aiming toward her car. She heard the snort of derision from behind her but kept moving with intentionally strong steps and a long stride.

"Are ya fuckin' with me, Althea?" his tone had completely swaggered toward teasing and

she cocked a smile back to where he'd stepped up behind her, stalling the both of them up quickly and forcing him to shift the bag he taken as he met her eyes.

"I don't know." The mix of color in her eyes when she was firing in his direction was interesting enough to hold his attention for days. "Am I?"

"You are now." he smiled into it, intentionally leaning his mouth closer to hers but forcing her to decide whether she was closing the distance.

Her lashes seemed awfully long as she blinked and he wanted to wait and watch them brush her cheeks again but she turned away from him easily. Too easily for his comfort.

"Ally."

She couldn't save herself from smiling as she unlocked the hatch on her SUV, swinging it up and setting down the bag before glancing back at him. "If I didn't plan on continuing this conversation I would have taken my pineapple back."

She didn't think he realized that the scars he was so very conscious of made his smile downright delicious.

"I'm gonna follow you home." His murmur just barely broke over the rustle of the bag that he was shifting into the back of her car.

"I don't need an escort, Telford."

Chibs just grinned into her sass, his now empty fingers finding the ridge of her belt so that he could tug her forward. "I can lead if you'd rather."

There she went with the lashes again and –

"Just meet me." She shrugged a little closer and he was surprised by the very comfortable and curling movement of her body into his, one of her hands stroking against softened and worn in leather.

"I'm tryin', sweetheart."

He caught the minute upturn of her jaw and this time she didn't need to pull him any closer than he already was before he let his mouth break against hers, both his hands curling at her waist as he rushed his tongue between her lips. It was an intentionally hard kiss, forcing her to find her footing in the situation. Forcing her to step forward or away. When she tugged his head even closer and arched into the kiss, sucking on his tongue, he figured he'd found his answer.


	7. Chapter 7

She wasn't surprised when she pulled into her own driveway and found that he'd crossed his bike at the head of her drive, up close to the house in a way that seemed to stake some sort of claim on the property itself. The area was far newer to her and she had no doubt that every alley he could cheat through was an ingrained memory map in his head. He was all pale white and stark dark in the headlights of her car and she dropped into park, watching him shy his head from the lights for a moment before he lifted a gloved hand in annoyance. She left them on though, intentionally breathing pleasure into the relaxed line of his body straddling the bike. Leather and chrome looked too good to her in cold light. It was a weakness she wasn't about to give up. There was something too appetizing about the way he was a black and white starkness in a void of gray areas.

The sudden turn of his head toward her windshield, eyes thin as he squinted past the lights, made the passes of his face and shoulders a sudden warning. As though the dark angles of him were telling her that this was the single most spectacular mistake she could ever make. But then, really… she'd always been a sucker for mistakes when they looked as lanky and scruffed up as he did.

"Damn." She exhaled and clipped the lights off quickly, letting her eyes adjust as she shut the engine off and watched his body stretch off the bike.

She let him take his time toward the car, watching the movement of him as he stepped up to her closed window and broke both forearms up onto the hood line. His head was dropped so that he could press a glance through the window as she studied him in a suddenly thunderous silence. The slow up angle of his eyebrow matched the smile that curved on his lips as he studied her, his dark eyes following the linesof her face. One of his hands dropped so that he could crook his finger at her, waving her from the car before he swung back from the door, the other hand jerking at the handle to draw it open.

"You're stalking, Cu Sith." He leaned his weight into the door frame, a brazen cockiness suddenly so sure on his body that she couldn't help but smile into the way he was looking at her.

"I don't know why you look so good to me, but you do." The words came out dryly and quietly, and she wasn't even sure where they had come from. It was an admittance she wasn't quite sure she'd been ready to share.

She forgave herself the weakness when his smile went wide.

"You don't have to get outta the cage for me to take you on another round, Ally." he was sliding his thumb along his bottom lip as his elbow rode the top of the door, eyes dropping down the length of the way she was still seatbelted into the driver's seat. "May be a bit crampy. But it'll do in a pinch."

"You are ten times as cocky as you have any right to be, you know that?" she teased at him as she unhooked the seat belt.

"Aye." He grinned into a chuckle and reached across her body, drawing the belt away as he ducked into her space. "And you like that."

"Unfortunately," she exhaled slowly, glancing over his face as he got closer, "I do."

"Anything in the back that can't hold for awhile?" his mouth was too close and his body too warm for her to give a shit about groceries.

"I don't care." She admitted quickly, her left hand rising so that her fingers could run against dusted leather.

"You will when you don't have your cream in your coffee." He caught against her fingers and pressed them down. "And you'll blame me in the morning."

"Who says I use cream in my coffee?"

He cocked her a derisive glance as he pulled away, the sudden vacancy of his body leaving too much space and too little heat. "I know y'do."

"Right now," she caught against the bottom hem of his cut, tugging him back into the open doorway of the car. "I don't care."

"Right now?" he quirked over her with a smile, gently unhooking her fingers from his clothes. "You need to learn some patience, Lieutenant."

"Tease." She hissed around the car as he headed toward the back, knocking against the back door as he flared her a proud grin of agreement.

* * *

He'd given in on waiting in the middle of her kitchen, his resolved broken by the arch of her spine as she'd risen on her toes to put a box of something he didn't care about into the higher cupboard. And he'd driven a gloved hand up the back of her shirt as he'd pressed his thighs and hips up into the inviting curve of her ass. Something in his lungs had snapped loose and he'd let that heat flush over him without biting back on it, drowning a groan into the fall of her dark hair. There was something preciously welcoming in the domestic angle of her body as she'd just leaned into the kitchen counter and he wanted it for himself. He wanted to own the calmed safety of it. He hadn't claimed something so simple and innocent in too long and the sudden ache for it unnerved him.

"Stay." He hushed the whisper into her neck, rubbing his face into her hair as he drew both of her hands along the counter and leaned farther into her, curling around the lean length of her as both his hands skidded warm leather up her rib cage to curve the fabric of her bra. His hands palmed against her breasts and he was driving his hips hard enough into her that she had to lean more weight into her palms, letting him push forward.

Ally dropped her head forward, biting onto her bottom lip as one of his hands released from under her shirt and lifted to slope in front of her, palm loose and open. She relied on the press of his weight and put both hands to his, pulling the glove off while he shuddered an exhalation into her hair. He turned the other hand forward as well, letting her take both gloves off with gentled movements, dropping them to the counter top. Too gentle. Too soft. She was far from innocent, but the smooth slowness of her was driving him blinded.

"Why'd you come for me Cu Sith?" he questioned slowly into her hair, his bare hands held up still in front of her. "Why me?"

"Your smile." She admitted in a shaded whisper as she studied his palms. "Not the scars. The real one."

"And what d'ya want from me?" he begged into her shoulder gruffly. "I can't give you any more than this and y'know it."

"Maybe this is all I want." She lifted her hands to palm over his, carefully laying her hands against his upturned ones.

"I want to believe you." His murmur in her hair was aching as he pried his fingers between hers and closed their palms together.

"And I want to trust you." She countered quietly.

"You and I?" He rubbed his nose into the back of her head, swallowing down the scent of some secret safety. "We weren't made to trust anyone. It's not in our bones, Ally."

"Then why are you still talking, Filip?" she sharpened to the side as her hands clenched against their laced fingers. "Why try to convince me of something you think is impossible?"

He slid his eyes closed and downed his forehead to her shoulder, repeating her earlier words. "I don't know why you look so good to me… but y'do."

He felt her exhale, her body relaxing back into his chest as he wrapped their linked hands around her, "I know."

"Are you going to let me stay here?" he asked carefully as he lifted his jaw against the side of her head.

The duality of the question didn't go unnoticed and she turned her face into the angle of his jaw, letting his beard brush her skin as she tightened her fingers on his. "You know I am."

"You're right." He agreed softly, turning his jaw down so that he could pull a kiss from her, his tongue a slow slide on hers before he angled his head away enough to meet her eyes. "I do."


	8. Chapter 8

She was making everything a damn rampant battle and while it normally would have worn tiresome on him, something about the whipping challenge of her when her eyes flicked over him made a possible win a victory he craved over and over again. The sex had been seething and a digging fight over control and he'd given himself some lead time when he'd curved his palm up her throat to rush her jaw line, thumb keeping her chin pride-high as he'd slowly stepped her into the hallway wall and told her to just be still. There'd been enough rough and rasp and frustrated force in his tone that she'd given him a softened smile of acquiescence before her hands had stroked evenly down his chest, a grace of surrender on her face.

Granted, she hadn't kept the peace for long and by the time her long legs were wrapped at his hips and his arms were keeping her pinned up against the wall she'd already jousted back for the lead. And by then he hadn't cared. Because he was starting to inherently recognize the way her hands felt when they sloped the sides of his face to guard his scars. He'd memorized the taste of the specific moan she made every time he wrapped his fingers into her hair and pulled taut.

"Just sleep, Althea." He roughed the words into her scalp before wiping dark and silken hair off her forehead, looking down over the way she was laying into his side. Her thigh was possessively drawn up tight between his legs as she studied the bare inches of him with tracing fingers, "Jesus. You're making me blush."

Now it was a battle to stay awake.

To be the one that anchored the other in unguarded and vulnerable rest.

"You're not the type." She whispered as she traced the outline of the tattoo on his chest, her touch tacit and light and dangerously near tickling on his already tensed skin. "You're too bold to be shy, Telford. Too proud."

"Cocksure." He winked and lent into a chuckle as she lifted her head and arched her brow in obvious derision.

"You seem to think so." She whispered as she stretched up higher on his shoulder, studying the angles of his profile as he let his head dip back into her pillow, body lanked and relaxed as he palmed against the back of her head. "Are you really?"

"Would y'just sleep?" he kissed quickly at her while the other hand slapped playfully against the back of her thigh, avoiding the question in a rush.

"Why?" she caught his hand and wrapped against his wrist, shifting her hips over his abruptly so that his other hand braced on her waist, eyes following the slender and delightfully inviting line of her while she straddled him.

"Maybe I wanna stare at you naked." He lifted the wrist she was still gripping against, drawing her down over him with the pull of his arm and the grip of his other hand, "Take it all in."

She cocked him a dry glance but leaned in slowly, shaking her head before her lips brushed his, kisses taunting and intentionally light. "You've seen more than your fair share of naked women. You boys have been pussy barons for years."

"Sure," he angled her up suddenly with a palm flush into her abdomen, eyes pinning toward dark points as he studied the way she was arched, shoulders back and hair mussed down as she wiped along his forearm, watching the way he licked along his bottom lip as he studied her, "but I don't have to share this with boys, havin' a jerk while mommy's downstairs hooverin'."

"Possessive." She hissed at him, eyes thin in teasing as she pushed his hand away, laying back into his chest as she dug her hips down into his. "Filip does not play well with others. Displays aggression and violence without remorse when feeling as though his person, priorities or possessions are threatened."

"Play just fine w'you, love." He rubbed into her forehead as he gripped into her hair tightly, eyes catching hers. "So far. Now sleep."

She gave him the win he was wanting. Let him own it.

Because, for a little while, it kept him safely pressed beneath her.

* * *

"Stand down, VP." She murmured into the sudden sharpened back jolt of his shoulders at the sound from the front door, his head angled hard from the way he'd been pouring coffee. "Pretty sure a threat wouldn't knock at eight in the morning."

"Pretty sure I've knocked a'plenty at all hours, Althea." He countered as he turned her a hardened glance, his palms curving pale knuckled into the edging of her counter.

"Relax, Scotty." There was almost humor in her voice as she buttoned up the black cotton of the shirt she'd stolen from the pile of his things that were littered over her bedroom floor. Maybe she was guilty of her own possessive qualities. And maybe she wasn't prepared to let up on the smell of him on her skin.

Ally skimmed her fingers against the bare run of his spine as she passed by him, angling her steps from the kitchen and into the hall that led to her front door. She passed a glance through the front window as she curled her palm along the door handle but didn't pull, her lungs dumping a groaned noise before she rolled her eyes and shook her head. Slowly she cracked the door, leaning into the frame without pulling it open entirely, her face intentionally passive and composed as she met Unser's eyes in the morning's sunshine.

"Wayne." She nodded forward, catching the surprise and half amusement on his face as he took in the sight of downed dark hair and a man's shirt. "Good morning."

"Mornin'." He smirked his eyes straight to hers, keeping them there as he lifted report folders. "I, uh… wanted to drop these off. Didn't mean to interrupt your morning off."

"Don't worry about it." She shook her head and reached to take them, her spine suddenly lacing up tight when she felt Telford's warmth spread into the reach of her space, the guarding of his body a shift that was an intentional drive of his push for control. The flag of his possession was planted somewhere in the way his body flanked hers from behind, the bare flat of his arm riding the frame behind her head while the other hand cracked the door a bit farther open.

"Come on in for some coffee, then." The tone Chibs used was neither welcoming nor true, but instead a dank hiss of derision and the steel chord of it actually brought her skin tight. "Wayne."

She watched the mingling of surprise and a sort of confused betrayal on the older man's face, blinking as he shifted his shoulders back in a bright realization of understanding. The older man shook his head in a sudden shunt of forced composure, lifting the files into her reaching hand as he shrugged in shaded self defense. .

"Just returning some paperwork." Unser offered the other man softly before meeting her eyes once again. "Thought you may need it."

She pushed back into the way Chibs leaned forward, elbow angling into his ribs forcibly as she nodded a smiling thanks, "I appreciate it."

* * *

"What the hell was that?" she slapped the paperwork roughly onto her entryway table.

He just threw up a hand as he moved down the hall, greeting the furious thrust of her voice grazing bare shoulders by turning into the way she was glaring him down. "I don't trust 'im, Ally. He's been half in half out too long. He's survivin' more than cancer."

"This is about trust?" she slapped the comment at him harshly, looking absurdly attractive in his shirt and a rile of fury, "Really? You wanna debate trust when it comes to crooked cops? Have we met? Because your precious fucking bike isn't the only thing you parked on my property last night."

"Hey." His hand came up sharply in her direction, "Don't."

"Don't what?" she was all long legs as she stalked on him, her movements quicker than he expected as she pushed into his chest. "Don't remind you who we are?"

"You think I can forget it?" the sudden ferocity in his face made her lungs lock, his voice a rush of frustrated vitriol before he swung away from her, the side of his fist breaking hard into the kitchen door frame.

Ally sloped a glance over the way he rubbed the side of his arm into the frame before swinging his forehead against it, leaning forward so that his bare back was an open pass in front of her. She exhaled into the writhing silence that vibrated off of him, her shoulders dropping into the unavoidable urge to touch against him, her hand curving the ride of his belt against his hip before she leaned a kiss into the tattooed cross at his shoulder.

"We're just buying time, Filip." She let her cheek lay into the heat radiating off him, curling into the side of his tightened body.

"I know." He hushed down the line of the doorframe.

"But it's for sale," she laid full into him. "And I want as much as I can get."

He turned his face into her hair, exhaling hard, "I'll pay for it."

"We both will." She looked up into the sullen way he was watching her.

"I mean," his head angled as he looked over the dark break of his shirt on the pale of her skin, "I'm willing to pay it. Rent to own, Cu Sith."

"You're so full of shit, Telford." She hushed a smile into the words as she dug closer into his side.

"Aye," he nodded as he dropped his arm against her shoulders and leaned her into the frame, intentionally crowding closed around her. "And you like me."

"That's debatable."

He just gave a sadly knowing smile over her, shaking his head slowly, "No. It isn't."


	9. Chapter 9

"It's none of my business."

"You're right." She slapped the door closed easily, letting the clunk of the handle engaging echo the direct shunt of her tone. "It isn't."

"You know what you're getting into bed with?" he was already making himself comfortable in her office, his back stretching twitchingly in his chair as he eased the aches in his limbs lower into the seat. "I mean, literally, Jarry."

She ignored the lift of his hand as she circled the chair and leaned into the front of her desk, her jeans riding lower on her hips than her uniform usually did. Days off didn't seem to give her as much time as they used to and while she wasn't wearing the uniform, the badge on her belt was enough to drag her into enough of the station's daily routine that she'd already been in office for three hours. Unser's arrival on her doorstep had only fanned the flames of annoyance and before he'd been able to pass the slightest comment on the early morning she'd aimed him silently toward her office.

"You think I didn't take a good long look at his file?" she snorted as she shook her head, hair down against her shoulders and wrought into bold waves in a way that had already caught the surprised wide eye of a few male deputies. "I'm not green, Wayne. He's actually not the most dangerous man I've exchanged bodily fluids with, trust me."

"He can get you killed, Ally." There was a slip of accusation in the former chief's tone as he leaned his head into his hand. "You got a death wish? Hale, Roosevelt - "

"Don't start the laundry list." She shook her head to the side.

"You think because he kisses you over coffee that it's different?" Unser asked in a lowered tone. "He puts his hand on you and an hour later he's got it on an unregistered handgun, putting bullets in the men he disagrees with."

"He's not a vigilante, Wayne." She shot him a darkening glance of unmitigated warning, lungs casing tightly closed. "Watch yourself."

"Isn't he, Ally?" he was suddenly leaning forward into the way she was unconsciously bent from the desk. "And he's thick in it. This is the Vice President. He's not just playing fetch with the big dogs, Lieutenant. He's goddamn ferocious. He's cut blood out of people on two continents for over three decades."

"Wayne - "

"You wanna be next?" he threw the words off as he slung himself back into the chair, jaw firmed harder than she'd seen yet. "Fine. Keep him around. Watch it come down on your shoulders."

"Wayne." She just shook her head slowly, face blanking in a slow speechlessness as she shrugged her shoulders in a loss.

He wasn't necessarily saying anything that she didn't already mentally comprehend.

Didn't mean every inch of her skin fought the veracity of his accusation.

"Jesus Christ." Unser stared her down after wiping his hand over his suddenly sweated and gray pale face. "You walk away now, while you still can. If you can."

"I don't know." She admitted as she angled her head down, fingers curling the edge of her desk to find her balance.

"What's your endgame?" he asked in a suddenly quietly sympathetic tone. "If you don't have an exit strategy in place then you aren't smart enough to sit at that desk, Althea."

"I didn't ask for your opinion." She shot at him starkly, eyes hazed dark to black as she snapped a look up at him. "Not on this."

"Obviously." He muttered as he shook his head slowly, turning his glance to the side as his breathing rattled throughout the otherwise silent room. "I like you, Ally. I don't wanna see you trapped in the middle. They're burning everything down around them right now and you've already gotten a taste of the shrapnel. What if he's not there the next time something aimed for him explodes in your direction?"

"Why does every man in this town seem to think I need a guard dog?" she murmured down over him, her jaw tightening as she bit down on the urge to be angry, softening with the worried way he was looking at her. "Both sides of the law trying to shield me from the big bad other."

"This morning wasn't guarding. He was marking territory. Is he promising you something?" Unser asked in a suddenly searching tone, "What am I missing?"

She shrugged into the question, avoiding the discussion of what she was getting besides the Scot in her bed, "He hasn't promised me a thing. He's made it pretty damn clear that what I see is what I get."

"I guess the question is," the former chief shrugged slowly, "what do you see?"

"Remember the part where you said that this was none of your business?" she responded with quick certainty, glancing up to the way one of her deputies was hovering outside her door, waiting to speak to her.

"Yeah." He answered as he pushed himself up from the chair. "I remember."

* * *

"Hey," Jax's voice was a hummed sound of acknowledgement as he watched the other man rise onto the roof. "You've been quiet today. You chewin' on something?"

"Aye." Chibs nodded slowly as he angled his body into a drop, easing down to sit beside the younger man. "My humility."

"Like you had any to begin with." Teller snorted and offered up a cigarette to the Scot, the both of them taking the time to light them and hiss off the first inhale, their movements a mimicry of each other.

"This isn't the club." Jax murmured as he let his wrist settle into his knee, cigarette loose between his fingers. "Something else has you edgy."

"Unser knows." Chibs lowered his voice to a riding hush. "About Jarry."

"The cash?"

"No," he took a long drag from the smoke, blowing it out as he lifted his jaw, "the, uh, other aspect of the partnership."

"That's not my deal." Jax snorted as he panned the older man a half smirk. "What do you care? What's he gonna do? It's nothing but a chance for him to pass self righteous judgment. Forget it."

"He'll ride her on this, Jackie."

"And?" Teller shrugged, both his arms breaking relaxed to his up drawn knees.

Chibs shrugged, avoiding the other man's blue glance. "Maybe he's right to."

"And maybe it's none of his goddamn business what she does in her free time." Jax murmured slowly. "He's spent, Chibs. He's hanging onto a cliff edge with bloodied fingers."

"I don't want her hurt." There was a near pulling pain in the older man's accent as he turned a glance toward his President. "I mean it, Jackson. I want her whole."

"When did this stop being a bit on the side?" Jax asked in a suddenly quieter tone, his voice hazed in smoke and concern, "When did it become worth more?"

"Started that way." Chibs admitted with a slow shrug, avoiding the other man's glance as he wiped the cigarette out on the rooftop. "Just didn't realize… I didn't know."

Teller gave him a half nod, dipping his jaw into the way he pulled another drag on the cigarette, "I'll do what I can but I can't promise anything. We all take the risks. We all deal with the sacrifices."

"I know." Sadness met in the way they looked at each other. "It needed to be said."

"Yeah." Teller nodded his glance forward, flicking the cigarette butt away. "Don't worry about Unser. He'll blow his smoke. She'll see through it."

"We'll see."


	10. Chapter 10

"Call Jarry." Jax's voice was a quick jut up his back as he headed for the door, catching the wondering way the other men were casting back glances between the two of them in questioning. "Get her over here."

"And why exactly would we be doing that?" there was a flinch of cautious wariness tingling his spine straight as he waved the other men away, nodding into the confused glance Tig gave him before turning his palm back flat onto the table. "Huh, Jackie?"

Teller gave him a broad smile as the door shut them into privacy, both hands lifting in open defense, "Open lines of communication. She wants more on Lin, right? Wants to know why they're trying to flip him?"

Chibs thinned him a knowing glance as both hands palmed the table and his shoulders bent forward, "Firstly, you're a lousy bullshitter, boy."

"I give her a couple possible hits, she makes her moves. It looks good to the Feds, the politicians. Keeps her clear." Jax leaned comfortably back into the table, "Straight up, Chibs. I'm working with and not against, here."

"This is not an issue that's worth takin' the time right now, Jax." The Scot laid the words over the table, his sincerity softening as he dropped his glance away from the younger man's bright blue eyes. "I appreciate - "

"It's worth the connection." Jax leaned his elbow into the head of the table, "And it's worth the trade off. And I don't mean gettin' your dick wet. She gets information, we get information."

"Lousy," Chibs blinked him up a shied smile. "bullshitter."

"Call her up." Jax grinned at him as he shrugged. "I feel the need to get right with the law, Chibby. Really turn over a new leaf."

"Aye." Chibs banked back off the table. "She's gonna be pissed you call her in here like whistlin' a feckin' dog. You better have something to appease that crazy."

Jax chuckled into a wider smile, "I got you, brother."

* * *

Rage looked awfully pretty on her and he watched it writhe on her bare shoulders and the shift of her hips as she stalked at him from her car. He bit down on the smile that cropped up on his lips as he looked over the way the white tank she was wearing laid like a glove. A jolt of something blindingly hot jammed from his stomach to his groin as he let his eyes rove her hair, reminding him of how it smelled to wake up with his nose buried in the dark heat of it. .

Awfully pretty when pissed.

Add that to the list.

"This is not acceptable, Chibs." Her badge was pinned to her pelvis and he angled his eyes away from the subtle warning of it, knowing her firearm was hanging just as guardingly on her body.

"Not my call, sweetheart." Chibs shrugged his shoulders lightly, keeping his voice amiable and quiet with apology as he reached to open the door for her.

"Shove it, Scotty." She rolled her eyes at the guilted endearment. "You are not adorable."

"Yes, I am." He couldn't save himself from smiling into the way she glared at him, her hands perching the way her jeans slung low on her hips, the mixed up mingle of coloring in her eyes lending dark.

He swung the door wide, a half bow ushering her forward.

"Do I look like one of your whores?" she hissed the words quietly by him as he pressed the door farther open, letting his shoulders bank back into it as he leaned on the handle and studied the surety of her steps. "Am I wearing the cut?"

"Wish you would." He taunted after her, voice low and lackadaisical to keep some semblance of peace as she moved past him, shunting his hand away and turning as he reached for her lower back, "Be sexier on you."

"Not acceptable." She murmured again, shoulders angling back as he drove into her space, his fingers catching on her belt, angling beside the badge so that he could tug her closer.

"Would'ya be kind, Althea?" he dipped his jaw lower, keeping his voice warmed up as he angled tighter into her. "You don't often get invited to the table with a badge on your belt. Understood?"

The sudden slide of composure over her features was a wave worth watching and he sighed into it, grinning thanks as she relaxed into the way he was pressing his hips into hers. Ally inhaled slowly, letting the ride of his hands catch her hips for a moment, knowing that he was making a public visual that was more than just a message. It was a claim. And for him to do it so boldly before the scatter of men and women throughout the studio - it'd been sanctioned.

"Unser was in my office this morning." She admitted in a caged quietness.

She watched the sudden graceless anger that shattered his humor, his tongue running against his teeth before he blinked, "And?"

"Told me to walk away." She tested the way he was still holding against her by tracing the Vice President patch that was bold on his chest.

He let her make the movement, unflinching in the way he watched her. "And?"

Her palm flattened into his chest, pushing him back and off her with a slow stroke of her forearm as she stepped backwards farther into the room. "I know the way. I don't need an escort."

"Ally?" his head cocked hard as his hands dropped to his side, face suddenly slack with stalled concern as he watched her back step toward the offices. "What're y'doin'?"

"I'm not in the habit of blowing up the bridges I'm standing on, Filip." She told him softly as she shrugged, passing the way Trager was standing by and watching the interaction with unfettered humor, "Some of us need to keep shit straight while you boys light fires."

"Amen, Lieutenant." Tig offered up after her, grinning into the sardonic glance she passed between them before turning away, his eyes catching back to the way Chibs was still and slack a few steps away. "Filip?"

"Christ," Chibs rolled his eyes and wiped his hand over his face. "You gonna start too?"

"That uniform is not flattering." Tig told him jauntily. "I like this version. It's curvier. And saucier."

"Shut yer' mouth." The Scot clipped the back of his hand into the other man's ribs as he started to follow after her, leaning into the way Trager was already chuckling. "I need a very large drink."

* * *

"I got this."

He narrowed a blade sharp glance over the younger man, confusion hackling the skin on the back of his neck as he cast a glance past the President to the way she was standing hip cocked on the opposite side of the room. "Jackie - "

"It's all good, Chibs." Teller nodded with a slowly building smile, "Seriously."

Filip lifted a glance past the other man's shoulder, catching the interested and faintly scrutinizing way she was watching their interaction. Her shoulders rose in a suddenly cautious anticipation and he just held the look she shot him. He nodded to her just once, eyes softening as he lifted a hand in agreement, stepping back from the entry way. He met the blonde's eyes again, catching the way Jax just nodded softened support before grabbing at the door handle.

"Seriously." Teller leaned the words whisperingly into him. "Take a breath. Take a walk. We're good here."

"You shuttin' me out of this?" Chibs dropped his tone to a hush. "It doesn't look good."

"Take a walk, Chibs." Jax repeated solidly, his face suddenly unreadable in its pale stillness. "We're good."

He lifted his hand again defensively, catching the interested lift of her jaw as he turned away, aiming his steps from the door, the tension in his shoulders a sudden cage wrapping his frame.


	11. Chapter 11

"What can I do for you, Lieutenant?" Jax laid his shoulders and spine up against the closed door, head riding back into the wood as he let his body go loose.

"You rang my bell, Teller." She answered softly as she curled her arms defensively into her torso, noting the smirk he gave in response to her accusation, "Not the other way around."

"I mean," he matched the movement of her arms, his stance more relaxed though. "big picture. What can I do for you? What do you need to keep a balance?"

Ally searched the open look he was giving her but didn't answer, breathing in slowly as she loosened up on the tight way she was standing. She took a cue from the relaxed drop of his shoulders and leaned her hands onto the back of the chair that was in front of her, letting her spine arc as he matched the movement and headed toward his seat. He dropped hard into the chair and used the toe of his boot to kick back Chibs' seat for her.

"Screw everything else, Jarry. Put a pin in it." He spoke quietly as he offered the chair with an open hand, elbow digging into the table. "Let's talk about the flow of information."

"I've been here before. I've navigated this kind of situation and I did a damn good job of it." She shrugged as she sat gently, her shoulders leaning back into the chair as she let a hand rest to the table. "That's why I'm here, Jax. Obviously Roosevelt's way of doing things wasn't working."

"Obviously." He snorted as he tugged a pack of smokes from his pocket and offered it in her direction.

She lifted her hand to wave it off but leaned in as he shrugged. "I'm not naïve. I'm not stupid. I know you're not going to give me anything legitimate. But you have to make it look like you are. You have to throw me a fucking bone every so often."

"I can dump a handful of leads on Lin. Give you some other little nuggets." He nodded as he lit the cigarette and tugged the ashtray in his direction. "You can get your people moving. Feds'll think you're onto something. We can work together without sharing the test answers, yeah? And the little things – like the heads up the other day. We can work with that. That was solid."

* * *

He slung the bottle back hard, swallowing off it deeply as he let his shoulders slide back against the roof's ridge wall. His head tipped back so that he could grind the lip of it into the back of his skull, licking the whiskey warmth from his lips while he bit down on the welcoming feeling of almost pain. He married the numbing with the feeling and let his eyes clip shut in the sunshine, sunglasses already downed on the bridge of his nose.

"You sure it's smart to muddy yourself up right now?" Tig's boots grated on the roof softer than slippers on glass but the sound was still an intrusion he could have gone without.

"This whole situation is muddy." Chibs lazed back at the other man, still driving his head back into the lip of the roof's edging.

"Well, yeah." Trager agreed as he crouched before the Scot. "That's why we need you clear."

"I'm tired of bein' clear, Tiggy." He admitted as he finally downed his jaw, looking toward the other man over the rims of his glasses, catching the blue in the sun's brightness. "Aren't you goddamn weary?"

"Sure." Tig nodded slowly, his face wearing a map of worry. "But I got miles to go before I sleep."

"Aye." Chibs let his head slack back again, sightlessly offering up the bottle in resignation. "She still down there?"

"Haven't heard any shots fired yet." The grin was ringing clearly through the other man's voice. "Guess that's a good sign."

* * *

"I wanna know who else is on your payroll." She laid it out softly, keeping her voice airy and far from anything that could be considered demanding. "My bet is Barosky."

He squinted sidelong at her as he sucked down a breadth of smoke, "Who's payroll isn't Barosky on?"

She nodded slowly in understanding, "You cannot trust him."

"I can't trust you, Jarry." He snorted as he shrugged back into his chair, angling his arm up onto the back as he turned truthfully into her.

"No, you can't." she agreed on a rueful smile, hand lifted softly. "But I have more self control than Charlie. And I'm not playing sides against each other for a greedy profit."

He barked a laugh out and slung farther back in the chair, "Bullshit."

"I didn't ask for your money." She shrugged and kept her face a stark line of surety, "I just took the envelope the man with the pretty accent handed me."

Jax snorted as he shook his head at her. "So if I stopped having him hand you envelopes, we'd still be chums?"

She shrugged into it idly, head turned into the way her shoulder lifted, "I'm not saying I don't appreciate it. But it's not my priority. Main Street being a place where shit doesn't blow up in my face? That's a priority."

"And Chibs?" he asked her quietly as he stubbed out the cigarette, the acrid twist of burning filter spiking a caustic smell between them. "He make it somewhere on that list of priorities?"

Her jaw lifted with a sudden sharpness and he caught the swing of blackness that coalesced in her eyes. "What does it matter? He's a big boy - all grown up, Pres. Trust me."

"It matters." His jaw was suddenly wired broad and tight.

Ally studied his face slowly, her lungs caught up still as she met his eyes. "You sent him my way, Jax. And you've obviously made it an acceptable situation."

"At his request. Because I respect him." He offered bluntly as his fingers pushed onto the table in explanation. "Not out of some inherent need to play matchmaker in the middle of this goddamn mess."

She nodded slowly into his brisk assertion. "He's on the list."

"How high?" he demanded sharply. "High enough?"

She inhaled slowly, lanking her body back into the chair so that she could stall any sort of response. She guarded against the searching way he was glaring over her by turning away from the bright blue of his eyes, her head angled so that she could exhale without wearing the color of his accusation.

"This is why I'm actually here?" She spoke slowly in a calculated darkness.

"No." Teller responded quietly. "But I'd like to know. In the interest of… trust."

Ally snorted and looked back over him, noting how old his eyes read in the youngness of his face. "I didn't call him and give him a heads up for you, Teller. I called him to keep him out of Stockton's yard. It wasn't in the interest of cooperation. It wasn't the money. It was to keep him safe."

He was suddenly grinning at her as he rubbed his fingers onto his lips.

"Having him in gen pop, where you're targets to every color of the goddamn rainbow, wasn't something I could have easily circumnavigated without my bosses noticing." She explained with a strained tone of annoyance. "I made a call."

He was fully smirking now and she bit down on the urge to slap it off his face. "I get that."

"And I'd appreciate it if you'd keep it to yourself." She leaned back from his amusement, shaking her head into the way he was smiling at her. The continued affection he was aiming in her direction finally had her exhaling into a half smile. "What?"

"Unser paid you a visit yet?"

"Which time?" she asked to the side as he lit another cigarette.

"He probably made a lot of sense." Jax admitted softly, his glance dropping as the humor drained from his face. "Said some shit that rings true."

She lifted a shoulder and dipped her jaw, "I make my own mistakes, Teller. I'm a big girl. All grown up. Ask Chibs."

He just passed her a small smile. "He's gonna be pissed I shut him outta this."

She just gave him a shrug as she pushed up from the chair, palms pressed to the table as she leaned forward in teasing, "I won't tell him anything if you won't."


	12. Chapter 12

She wasn't necessarily surprised to find him leaned up long and lanky against the driver's side door of her car. Didn't mean she didn't take a moment to enjoy the denim and leather laden glory of it before she swallowed down and turned a glance to the back of her car. Movement had caught her eye and she squinted into the way one of his friends was crouched down at the back of her vehicle. Tig's left hand was pressed against the back of the SUV, his right palming under her muffler in a way that made her suddenly tighten up rigid.

"Trager." Her voice clapped hard over the both of them. "Wanna step away from the vehicle right now, please?"

He looked up sharply and she ignored the fact that Chibs just angled a lazed grin between the two of them. Tig just drew his hands both off the car, balancing himself up onto flat feet far more nimbly than she'd expected out of him. He caught his hands onto his hips and shrugged as he glared back down over the uneven muffler and cocked his head. He stepped back as he angled his head farther to the left and waved loose fingers toward the back end of her car.

"Carriage is jacked. You're ridin' a little low, Sheriff." The words came back up with a blue eyed grin.

She gave him a deadpan glance before glaring her way back to the Scot. "Tell me about it."

"Oh, my love, straight to the heart." He hissed off the dig with a brash smile and a gloved hand against his chest, catching Trager's laughter and adding to it with his own before he jerked his head toward Red Woody. "Tiggy, beat it."

"Just offering some friendly advice to our lovely Sheriff." The other man taunted between the two of them as he passed by, giving her an up and down glance for good measure, "Lookin' good today, Jarry."

"I know." She agreed slowly as he flashed a grin.

"I'm sure you do, ma'am." He cast back as he leaned into the door and disappeared.

Ally turned her head back toward him, catching the supposedly relaxed way he was sidled back into her car, his arms still looping his chest in a way that flared the pass of his hips in her direction. She avoided looking down for as long as she could before forcing her glance to meet his. The amused smile he'd been wearing had suddenly sheared off and he was staring hard at her, jaw pent tight as he bit down on it.

"You and Jackie boy all friendly now?" he questioned softly, his voice a little more than vehement, "Got everything all figured out?"

"For once, you don't need to know." She responded quietly, matching his stance unconsciously so that her arms were laced tightly under her breasts in a way that led his eyes over her briefly. "Please tell me he did not just low jack my fucking car, Filip."

"This is the way it's goin' t'be?" he exhaled annoyance, his face suddenly passing toward defensive.

Ally stepped into him, forcing his shoulders farther back into the car as one of her hands angled against the door handle, her body bracketing him in. "I guess this is the way it has to be, isn't it?"

He didn't flinch from her, didn't move. "Ally, I'm tryin' to make it work."

"I know." She admitted softly, as she nodded her glance down over the way he'd shifted his hand enough so that his knuckles were rubbing against her stomach. "I can see that."

His other hand nudged hers aside from the door handle and he gripped into it, driving his hips forward into hers to force her movement as he jerked the door open. The other palm laid along her hip as he shifted for space, nodding her into the car with a half smile.

"Unless you wanted to check for tracking devices first." He taunted at her in a husked tone.

"You are a possessive son of a bitch." She hushed back into him on a shaded whisper that drew them closer for hearing. "Wouldn't put it past you."

"And what if I did? What if I told him to do it?" he asked, eyes tripping over her lips as his words weathered slowly between them. "Would it be so bad? Having me at your back should someone decide it's a good idea to run you down as leverage?"

"Someone else running me down isn't what I'm worried about right now." She admitted in a sudden rush of blatant honesty.

"Should be." He responded quietly, avoiding the implication she made about the club as he rubbed the heel of his glove up her rib cage, leather ribbing on cotton. "You worry about your side and I'll worry 'bout mine."

She just nodded and made a shift to move away from him, pausing as though something had stilled her movement, greened eyes tracking up to meet his.

He just smiled ruefully into her silence, eyes softening in humor. "Just can't walk away, can ya, lass? Go ahead and check. I'll wait."

"That's not why." She shook her head quickly and her fingers were suddenly prying him closer by the belt, fidgeting on the buckle.

"Whatcha want then?" he asked in a knowing tease that lit his face, jaw shying lower as her head angled. "Huh? You looking for something before you go, Althea?"

She glared on him and his teasing, shaking her head slowly before she flexed her fingers out and pushed him roughly off her in annoyance. His laughter ratcheted up her spine as he tugged her back by the pocket, a groaning kiss rubbing into the side of her head as he braced his groin up against her ass and palmed her pelvis. She sank her shoulders back into him and let her eyes close as he tugged her tight into the movement, feeling done in and damned by the very thing she'd wanted from him.

"You are lookin' awfully fine today, Sheriff." He whispered on her ear as he leaned her closer to the seat. "Can I find ya later?"

"Apparently I need my back end looked at anyhow." She jaded back to him as she purposefully pulled from his touch, knowing he'd drop a glance to her ass for that one.

So she took her time getting into the car.

She couldn't help herself from temptation when it had his heat on it.

"I wouldn't trust any of those boys to be able to properly handle that situation." He leaned his elbow up onto the top ridge of her door, his smile the sudden terrifyingly perfect cure for anything that had been edging on her.

"I'll call you if it becomes a problem that needs your attention."

"Aye. Do that." He laughed as he pressed off the door and swung it shut, giving her a wink through the window and letting his fist rap against the metal before he turned away.

* * *

The sun was warming harsher than he'd expected and he backed the sweat off his neck with the rub of his fingers, head turning up slowly as he heard the harsh sputtering of Unser's truck. Chibs leaned back comfortably on the step to the trailer, purposefully letting his legs go lax in the short space so that they stretched out long before him. He watched the older man pass him a knowing glance as he cut the engine dead and leaned out from the truck. The former Chief's steps were lagging tired and slow in his direction but Chibs made no movement, just watched the approach in silence.

"Took you longer to show than I thought it would." Wayne grunted off, a pile of mail curled in his arm. "This is where you threaten me and all?"

"Been a bit busy. Our appointment had to be delayed." Chibs murmured slowly, letting his head settle back into the metallic door to keep them balanced where they were.

"I bet." Unser's face was dark with knowing annoyance. "Might as well get it over with so we can all get back to our own bullshit."

"I'm not threatenin' you." The Scot sighed off and pressed his palms into his knees, drawing his body up in a whisper of creaked leather so that he could angle to the side, a palm leaning his weight into the trailer. "I'm just tellin' ya."

"Telling me what?" Wayne snorted in derision as he moved toward the door, his steps stalled by the way the other man's hand suddenly caught into his chest and stalled him perfectly still.

"If she comes to you, fine." The accent was suddenly dank and thick and it went dark in the sun's shine as Telford weighted his palm harder into the other man's chest, the movement tipping Unser's balance by just a margin. "But you don't go to her again. Not on this."

"Chibs - "

"She isn't Gemma." His words were laced low and hazy. "And she doesn't need you chirpin' in her ear, little bird."

"Afraid of what she'll hear?" Wayne asked, acting as though unswayed.

The darkness of the other man's eyes thinned as he exhaled and dug into Unser's shirt on a tight grip, "I'm tryin' to save her here, Wayne. Don't get in the way."

"No, you're using her as a goddamn life raft." The short of the two jutted back sharply, his face flustered, "Walking away would go a long way to saving her ass."

"No." Chibs hushed over him before loosening his grip and wiping down the other man's shirt, a tap against his chest as he stepped back. "Not now it wouldn't."

"You let it go too far, Chibs. The both of you did." Unser told him bluntly as he watched the reaper patch face him, voice carrying after the other man's shoulders. "The end of this is gonna be on you."

"No, Chief." the younger man's body suddenly flung back around all dark leather and rough movements, steps carrying him forward into the way his hand found the same place in fabric but jerked and tagged even tighter than before. "It'll be on both of us. And you."

The sudden release of his hand stumbled the former Chief back into the step railing and he leaned there, watching as the other man stalked away fury dulling the leather he was wearing.


	13. Chapter 13

"Y'know about CaraCara?"

She cocked him a glance of confusion as she shrugged into a nod and turned from pan she had on the stove. "Sure. Stahl shut down production before someone burned it down."

"Luann Delaney." He murmured slowly, an obvious darkness clouding on him as he slowly pried his gloves from his hands, letting them dump onto the table carelessly before he stepped around it and closer into her space. "Used to run CaraCara. Took care of her girls."

"Otto Delaney's wife." She softened her voice as she angled back into the counter, watching the way he stalked on her, his jaw a tensed line.

"Aye." Some sort of residual anger was weighing over him and it hadn't been as heavy on his frame when she'd seen him earlier. "Bashed to death and dumped on the side of the road like garbage."

His earlier humor had soured and was replaced by a thrumming anger.

"This is a history lesson?" she asked, a hand dropping to blindly turn off the burner on the stove as he angled flush into the front of her, his eyes piercing into hers.

"I mean, y'need to lock your goddamn door, Althea." The words rushed over her roughly.

"You said you were coming." She pressed a hand forward into his chest defensively, shunting and stalling the movement of him against her for a breath. "And I have a Glock .34 on my belt. What exactly is your point, Scotty?"

"The point, Sheriff," he locked around her with prying hands along the counter edge, shifting his hips into hers hard so that she was leaned back, her fingers still spread on the leather that covered his chest, "is that you're twice the target. So keep the door locked."

She focused on the heavily pointed way he was studying her face, searching the pass of whatever frustration was bending him so dark. Ally exhaled slowly and nodded a slow agreement into the way he was still staring her down. She saw the twitch of relief in his jaw before both his hands broke from the counter and caught against her jaw, jerking her into a kiss so abrupt a noise of surprise came off her throat. He swallowed it with a groan and raked her closer, tongue driving against hers as her fingers dug into him. He softened it when he realized how stiffly straight her spine was under his pressing, his hands gentling back into her hair as he sucked along her bottom lip. Her breathing shivered on him as he let his forehead lay into hers.

"What happened?" she asked harshly.

"Nothing." He blinked his eyes shut. "I just… please?"

"Okay." She relaxed her hips into the counter, letting her body angle flush into his as he finally lifted his head and looked back over her. "I get it, Filip."

A sudden self conscious flush forced him to turn a shy smile to the side, "You're making dinner?"

"I do eat occasionally." She nodded slowly as his arm weighed down to curl her waist while his left hand flicked the heat back on, the both of them looking over the meat and vegetables that were scattered in the pan. "Did you want some?"

The suddenly amused look he gave her made him seem somewhat innocent.

At least until he cocked her a leering glance in teasing.

"Dinner, Telford. I was asking if you wanted dinner." Her brow arched as she nudged him off her, pushing his hips back as she turned back into the front of the stove and reached for the spatula again.

"I do." He caught against the back of her neck tightly and leaned a kiss onto her temple, letting his forehead rub against her skin as her head angled into it. "Thank you."

* * *

"It's your rear axle, by the way." He tossed off after swallowing the forkful of food, accepting the she glass she handed him as she leaned the wine bottle in his direction and poured half a glass. "Both boots are torn off. No grease. Your inner joint's shot."

"You're serious?" she lifted the bottle away in confused disbelief as she stood over him, shaking her head in amusement.

"Probably the outer joint by now too. Y'don't feel a shudder?"

Ally arched a wondering glance over him as she shook her head, bottle waved between them to expand her point, "This moment is… highly unlikely in our relationship. And you're talking about my rear joint?"

"Inner joint, rear axle." He hummed his smile up at her before taking in a drink. "Our relationship?"

"And do I feel a shudder?" she asked him with a sardonic glance, hip flared out. "You mean in the car?"

"Or in our relationship." He teased at her and swallowed down more of the wine.

"You're about to feel a shudder." She assured cockily over his smirk as she tipped the bottle toward her own glass, pouring half and then casting a tired glance into the way he winced as he pulled his vibrating phone from his pocket.

"What?" his voice was quick and rough into the burner.

Ally rolled her eyes as she poured into the rest of the glass, filling it completely. She stepped away from his conversation but couldn't save from hearing his end as he jutted his boots farther out against the floor and leaned back in the chair, a frown thinning down his eyes as he hummed a sound of understanding and swallowed down more of the wine. He was listening patiently and she liked the way it looked to see him sitting comfortably at her table.

It was a pipe dream of a moment. Too domestic to be realistic.

And she sank into it as she blindly pressed the cork back into the bottle.

"Can I at least finish my dinner?" he groused into the phone as he lifted her an apologetic glance, face softening sadly. "For fuck's sake. When?"

Ally set the bottle down and stepped back into him, pulling the glass from his fingers with an arched look of assertion. She sipped on it slowly, letting him pull her closer and tug on her leg so that she straddled down onto his thigh to face him in his lap, feeling the hard tensing of his leg under her.

"No, stay there." He sharpened in response to the other end of the line as he let his hand brush heat against the leg she had tagged between his. "I'll call Hap out to ride with."

He suddenly grinned as he looked up at her, angling his head back as he kept the phone tucked to his ear. "I don't think she'd appreciate that much as I would, Tigger. But I'll ask."

"No." she hushed over him quickly. "Whatever he's suggesting."

"She says no." he chuckled, his accent thick with his smile. "Gimme an hour."

"Two." She murmured into him argumentatively, leaning tighter on his leg as she finished off his glass.

Chibs just groaned her a half glare and caught against her thigh to stop her shifting. His eyes casting over her face and down the front of her longingly as he closed the phone and rattled it harshly onto the table top. A growled vibration came off his throat as he leaned forward from the chair back, burying his face into her neck while his hand curled against her ass, the other one prying into the fabric of her shirt.

"At least eat something before you go." She set the emptied glass back against the table behind her, letting him curl tighter on her in silence. "We can salvage the actual dinner portion while you wait for your entourage."

"I'll be back in awhile." He hushed against her jaw. "Yeah?"

She smiled reflexively as she looked over the up turn of his jaw, questioning keeping his eyes a glittered dark. "Okay."


	14. Chapter 14

She let him into quietness, the house blissfully still and mostly dark as he leaned past her into the hall. Her eyes followed angrily jerked movements as he ripped the glove from his right hand and tossed it onto her entry way table, already angling his way down the hall.

"Good evening, dear." She cast after him lazily as she leaned her weight onto the door handle, obviously laying cynical sarcasm into the way he'd shunted past her.

"Just," his hand lifted sharply at his side as he headed farther away from her. "five minutes."

"Christ, Telford." Ally's voice seethed after him, a sickened knowing grinding her stomach up as she watched his movements, "What did you do?"

"Just," his shoulders suddenly seemed bold and broad and larger than she remembered as he turned, a furious cast edging his features sharp as he kept his hand cradled up into his chest, knuckles grazed and battered bloody. "five fucking minutes, Althea."

She inhaled long and heavy through her nose as she slapped the door shut in response, turning to lock it without allowing him the look he was searching for, a sudden scattered apology paling his face. And she stayed turned until she heard his boots on her floor again, listening him head toward the kitchen in a silence that suddenly made the house seem awfully goddamn loud.

* * *

"Look at me."

There wasn't much argument to be had in her tone and he banked a look to the side as cool water crashed over scrapped up knuckles, his head cocked as he looked over the way she moved into him.

"How's the other side look?" she asked in an obviously jaded quietness, her fingers catching against his jaw to lift his head as he kept his hand banked under the running water.

He'd gotten a bloody nose and used his hand to shunt it to an end.

She could tell by the blood still crusted on his skin.

"Bit worse." He admitted quietly, keeping his tone keeled even as she winced into the bruising that fanned out on his jaw. "Still breathing, unfortunately."

"Really?" She hissed annoyance at his phrasing as she kept his head angled up toward her. "Can we keep the blatant homicide references to a minimum here?"

"Because we're both so darlin' innocent." He dragged his jaw roughly off her fingers and slapped the water off, grabbing at a towel so he could wipe them dry, cautious around the ragged edges on his knuckles.

"Because I'd like to be able to honestly claim negligence at my trial, regardless of how much I like it when you go down on me, all right?" she sharpened at him, snapping the towel from his fingers as she turned the water back on and doused a corner of it. "Head back."

She tried to ignore the way he was half smirking in affectionate amusement as he leaned into the counter and angled his head back, breathing still shaken up ragged and rushed as he tried to relax his eyes shut. Ally wiped against the blood that had stained onto his skin, her hips unconsciously laying into his. His uninjured hand curling on her hip drew her attention to the vulnerable lean of him as she angled a glance down the leather and to the way he was still tucking mangled knuckles up into his chest.

"Jesus, Filip." Her breathing rushed out hard, the towel cooling the flush on his jaw as she brushed a kiss onto his opposite scarred cheek. "You go too far."

"Way I was made." He turned his face into the way she was leaned onto him, using his banged up hand to pull down lightly on hers and the towel, edging his lips to hers side by side. "Y'can't fix me."

She kissed lightly onto his lips. "That's obvious."

"Y'do very much like it when I go down on you, Sheriff." He nodded cavalier humor into the seriousness of the conversation, searching to bring her back from a dangerous intensity.

She shook her head into a smile that she couldn't help wearing, "Agreed."

* * *

She let him drag her hips back tighter, cradling her into the way he was curled up against her spine with his thighs flush to the back of hers. She let him spread sweated skin into sweated skin as he finger wiped circles round and round on the flare of her pelvis, his groin flush into her as he let his breathing settle slower and calmer into the arch of her neck. His other arm was still angled up above her head and he twisted his wrist, using battered fingers to keep her hair from where he wanted to lay his lips.

Her eyes slid shut as she ached into the way he was running lips and tongue against the side of her neck, her breathing finally settling slow once again as she caught against his tickling fingers and tugged his arm up around her. He followed the movement easily, leaning fully into her back and laying his face into her neck as he curved his palm to settle between her breasts. His fingers pressed into her sternum, measuring the slow relaxation of her lungs and even the usual chill from the rings on his hand was a warming rub on tingled up skin.

"Sorry." He admitted softly before burying his face harder into her, his other hand dragging and digging into her hair as a tether.

"Don't you apologize for that." She stretched into the way he was curling on her, a smug smirk laced up on her lips. "That was more than acceptable. I think you just leveled up, Scotty."

His snort of laughter brushed heat on her skin. "Y'know what I meant, Ally."

She lifted her hand back onto his jaw, a hushing noise off her throat as she just wedged back tighter, forcing him to wrap closer on her. "I didn't ask you to apologize for who you are. Shut up and go to sleep."

The teasing growl he scraped against her throat matched the pinch he dropped against her hip and her laughter dug his fingers tighter into dark silkiness as he let his eyes close.


	15. Chapter 15

"Oh, come on! She knows me."

It was a faintly familiar voice thrown wild that was rattling the general busy hum of the station as she passed through dispatch, a hand lifting to stall a conversation with the on duty responder as she angled her glance through the bulletproof glass.

"I just gotta talk, boys. Jarry!"

Ally rolled her eyes into the way two of her deputies were shouldering down the tall and lean length of a leathered mechanic that, unfortunately, she did actually know.

"Jarry!" His rise into a pitched head voice did very little to ease the throttling headache that had very suddenly started bombing in behind her eyes.

She lifted a hand against the intercom, voice welling into a sigh as she tagged the button harshly, avoiding the glance of the dispatcher, "Search him and let him through, Dulane."

She watched the sudden amused surprise turn Trager's face childishly delightful, his eyes widening up as he stared at the deputy and then cast a glance around himself as the officers both backed off. He turned his head toward dispatch, abruptly leaning both his hands flat up onto the glass as he finally caught sight of her, his rings bouncing another strike of sound between them. He mouthed a quick 'Hi' in taunting humor as one of the officers leaned up behind him to search him.

Ally thumbed the button again as she leaned nearly as close to the glass as he was, her face shielded sure and unemotional as she matched too blue eyes, "Not a sound until you're in my office, Trager. You're disturbing the peace of my station and you're giving me a goddamn headache."

He just grinned a nodding agreement at her through the glass, wiping his fingers onto it in a cradling wave as she stepped away.

* * *

"This better be really good." She shunted after him as she shut her door slowly, a palm edging it tightly closed rather than slamming it. He was more than enough sound and swagger to deal with on a morning when she didn't already have a headache robbing her attention.

"They couldn't give you a better office than this?" He shrugged off as he welcomed himself into her office, eyeing the shelves before leaning over her desk. "Budgeting must be a bitch, huh?"

She sniped at his hand, slapping it brashly as it rose off his hip to reach for a photo frame that was facing away from him. "Trager."

"What?" he just grinned again, his voice softening and hands up in playful defense as he dropped his hips back into the chair that was before her desk. "Just doing what I'm told."

"Which is?" she asked with a forced patience.

"VP sent me." He grinned even wider, the knowing in his eyes wiring her spine so straight that the vest she was wearing dug down on her hips. "Need your keys."

She banked confusion over him, finally letting her shoulders relax as he leaned back in the chair comfortably, one of his boots lifting to settle on the opposite knee so that his hips were jutted up in the chair. She shook her head off the way he shifted and rolled her eyes, stepping around the desk so that she could settle into her own chair and lay her head back, eyes dipping closed.

"Why the hell would I give you my keys?" she asked even though she wasn't necessarily in the mood to play into his answering game, eyes still tripped shut.

"Your axle." His voice had obviously softened some and when she looked back down over him he'd relaxed his head onto his hand, eyes gracing over her in a gentler and more innocent manner. "Part came in this morning. I'm gonna drive it back to TM."

"You're not kidding, are you?"

A confused humor tinted his eyes a brighter blue, "Chibs didn't tell you?"

"He didn't tell me." She exhaled as her glance bent toward annoyance, "Nor did he actually ask me."

Tig suddenly blew out a whistling breath that ended on a broad grin, "Don't kill the messenger, Sheriff. I'm unarmed."

"Are all of you like this, all of the time?" she asked him quietly and just got a shrugged answer in return.

"Got this too." He untucked a folded piece of paper from the pocket of his shirt, waving it back and forth before his face. "Kiddie porn thing from the other night. Statement from the mule. You pull him in, let him sit til he squeals. Then you can get a warrant for the higher ups."

"That's what that call was about?" she asked as she leaned forward, reaching to take the paper from him and panning him a glare when he drew it back from her fingers.

"Keys, Sheriff." Tig nodded as he lifted the paper. "I got my orders and you've got yours."

"You're not taking my car." She told him succinctly. "I'll drop it later."

"Oh, come on." he rolled his eyes as he shook his head, voice still caged quiet as he looked over her face. "He's being a gentleman, Jarry. He's being sweet. Let up on him a little, huh? He got the part and I've got the time. Besides, Rat dropped me off. I'm not walking all the way back."

"Why send you?" she asked in a sudden quiet cautiousness. "After three days of being MIA? Teller keeping him on a leash?"

There was a wincing in his eyes that suddenly made them twist toward gray. "Hasn't been the calmest of storms, Sheriff. Balancing act."

She nodded a slow understanding, blinking cautiously into the sudden flare of white pain that was cozily settling in behind her eyes.

"Hey," he leaned a sudden softness forward as his foot dropped back to the floor, a kind of sympathy on his face that she certainly hadn't expected from his corner, "you wouldn't wanna cause an accident, right? That axle goes and, shit, vehicle out of control on the highway? Your ass swingin'? Tire flies off and concusses some poor handicapped child? How'd that look on the resume?"

She glared into his teasing as she tugged open the side drawer to her desk slowly, pulling her keys from it and lifting them gently over the desk, "How many handicapped children hang out on the side of the highway in this town, Tig?"

His grin took control of his entire face as he traded the paper for the keys, "You'd be surprised."

"Hey." She matched the softness of the way he'd said it as he pushed himself out of the chair, jangling her keys in his hand in a way that ratcheted pain into her sinuses.

"Yes, ma'am?" he cocked her a questioning glance as his other hand wrapped loosely on the door handle.

"I'm not... he could at least let me know he's not in a ditch somewhere, huh?" the weakness of the request crawled her skin cold, but she made it anyhow.

Tig just gave her a grin and pointed to the paper with her key's making another explosion of sound through the room, "He just did."

Ally nodded a silent agreement and lifted her hand to release him from the conversation.

"It's not all that easy to tell Jax that something besides the club has become important, Jarry. Especially when it's something that could burn us all." He told her in a sweetened hush as he opened the door. "He's gotta finesse it a little."

"You're a good friend, Trager." She gifted the words on him in soft affection.

Tig's nose wrinkled into a shy smile as he shook his head, hips already angling out the door, "He's my brother. That's all."


	16. Chapter 16

Upon the realization that she'd be entertained in the presence of the Teller Morrow's matriarch she thanked whatever fluke had led her to showering and changing at the station before she'd had the next shift's lead deputy drop her at the garage. The headache that had started to subside suddenly had a wicked bite, digging in at the back of her skull as she balanced her weight on her boots, hip cocked out and glance directed forward toward the window. She hadn't said a word, something akin to caution keeping her evenly easy going as she tried to ignore the older woman's existence in the small room.

"Here for more body work, Sheriff?" accusatory cynicism lathed off the other woman's lips, her face an obvious pass of dislike and annoyance.

So much for ignoring.

Either way the crack was meant to go, it only flared Ally's shoulders up in a challenge of wills that her frayed up nerves couldn't pass up. "Thanks for the concern Mommy Dearest, but it's none of your goddamn business who handles my undercarriage."

"Oooh." Gemma gave her a widened glance of supposed fear before flopping down into the chair of her desk. "She's got a mouth on her. Unfortunately we know what it's used for."

"Hey." Tig's voice was a quick rush into the room that silenced them both and he quirked a semi amused glance between the two women as his head angled. "What's going on?"

"Are you two done yet, Tigger?" Gemma asked him sharply as she waved toward the garage.

"Almost." He cast the older woman a knowing glance of patience before tugging open the office door, waving Jarry toward the garage side. "Are you two?"

Gemma just passed a glaring over him that had his shoulders rising as he turned after the other woman and through the door.

"She does not like you, Sheriff." He offered softly.

She just snorted, "Guess she won't be at my slumber party later."

"I wasn't invited." He pouted at her playfully before stepping her past the tool racks and back to the end of her car. The obvious oiled smell of the garage was a welcome change from Gemma's perfume and the scent of her entitled indignation.

She cocked him a half shrug before looking down over the perfectly recognizable set of hips and long legs that she was stepping over, one of his knees drawn up for leverage as the garage dolly shifted with his hidden upper body. The line of his length was a welcoming warmth that she both loved and hated to find so comfortably and intimately familiar. Ally ignored the snort of amusement Trager let over the both of them as she let her eyes rove from the ride of his belt to his worn in boots and back up. She crouched on her toes, leaning both hands into his drawn up calf for balance as she rubbed into denim.

"Did I just find myself in a Red Woody production, love?" his voice was a warm and heady tease that carried humor from under the jacked car.

"Depends. Think Gemma's watching?" she asked as she taunted her fingers on the inside of his bent knee and along the back of his thigh, his hips jutting the dolly an inch in a flinched reaction. "Because I'd really enjoy righteously pissing that woman off."

"You already have, doll." Tig cast off as he stepped back around the car, the toe of his boot nudging into Telford's ribs as he leaned down along the back of the car. "Gonna have to do until we can get parts for the other side, Chibby."

"The other side too?" she asked as she leaned back on her heels, pushing up and leading him the space to draw out from under the car.

"Probably should." Tig explained as he took the tools Chibs lifted out from under the back end. "It's on its way out. You wanna keep it balanced."

She watched him draw from under it so that he could lean against the side of the car, boots bracing onto the cement so that he could keep balanced on the dolly as he smirked at her. His head was lazily dropped back into the side of her car and she smiled over the calmed stretch of him as he looked her over.

"Hear y'missed me, Cu Sith." He murmured softly as he tugged a pack of cigarettes from his pocket, putting one to his lips but not lighting it. "That true?"

"The feeling is waning, trust me." Her tone angled derogatory but hushed off toward affection as she crouched once again, fingers tracing the top of his boot. "You okay?"

"Just fine." He hushed past the unlit cigarette, his eyes set more tired and ragged than she'd last seen. "You?"

Ally nodded slowly, purposefully watching how prettily his eyes blackened past the weariness. "Fine."

"I'm fine too, guys." Trager interjected tightly as he leaned into the back of the car. "You all gonna keep eye fucking on the floor here or can I put the tire on and bring the jack down?"

"He's in a hurry." Chibs smiled at her, pushing off the car to stand as she shifted up and back. "You and Gemma bein' in the same building makes 'im nervous."

"It's a legitimate concern." Trager mouthed back as the Scot led her toward the open bay door, flicking a flame off his Zippo as he stepped into the declining sunshine and tipped his head into the half light and smoke.

"You bring in that little shite from the other night?" he asked her to the side, catching the way she'd curled her arms around her in a sudden defensive manner. "He'll give you at least three bigger fish."

"He's sitting in a stall." She shrugged it off, "I haven't spoken to him yet. He was carrying unlicensed so I nailed him on a parole charge. He'll sit there until he breaks or I feel like having a rousing conversation about child pornography, which would be never."

"Thank Christ." He hushed off and studied the turn of her profile, noting the way she'd shied her hair to one side of her throat, leaving the other side bare for him to long for as he searched the pale of her skin. "You pissed?"

She shook her head quickly and angled him a sidelong look of confusion, blinking as she studied his look of concern. "Because of the car?"

"Because of time." He sucked down a breath of smoke. "The quiet."

"No." she shrugged it off as she leaned into his side, letting her arm press into the larger and tenser muscle of his. "I get it."

He cocked a glance over the casual way she just leaned into him, his eyes running the dark length of her hair before he let off a breathy laugh and lifted his arm against her shoulders. He made show of flicking the cigarette away and into the parking lot before dropping a kiss into the top of her head and turning into the way he tucked her close. It was a held up moment before her palms rose to flush up his sides, her head dipping to rest into his chest as he untagged the tie from her hair and loosened its darkness down her shoulders.

"Need you to talk to him, Ally." He sighed the words into her hair. "Need him to give you those names. I want 'em inside."

Her head suddenly came up sharply, eyes a fluxed up mix of browns and greens and coppers like new pennies, "This game just doesn't end, does it?"

"Not yet." Chibs admitted softly. "Pissed now?"

"Marginally." She blew off, unable to ignore the fact that he was fingering the tips of her hair as she cast a scrutinizing glance back over him. "You break that kid's nose? He looks like he got hit in the face with a piano."

"He was sellin' children out, Althea." He arched a brow and tugged lightly on her hair in a play for more affection than he was getting. "Y'should see the boot marks I left on his balls."

She opened her mouth to respond but the words got swept away by a sharp whistle that broke over them as Tig started quick steps by them and toward his bike, his cell lifted in his hand and his face a white wash. "We gotta go, Chibs. Sorry, AJ. Have Wayne drop the jack, okay?"

She nodded her head into a confused acceptance of the other man's apology as the door to the office swung open to release both Gemma and one of the prospects with a name she hadn't had the energy to commit to memory yet. There was a sudden pull of heat from her as the short prospect caught against Telford's sleeve and tugged him aside, angling their heads together with shied words and rushed voices. Her ability to hear anything that came out of the interaction was obliterated by the fact that two bikes brashly swerved into the lot and hummed their engines louder in their sudden stillness. She realized they were waiting for the rest of the men around her and she shook her head slowly in frustration, ignoring the fact that she could feel Gemma's concerned presence no more than two feet from her elbow.

"You better get that look off your face before he sees it." Gemma's voice was a caustic roil from her side as the older woman evened their stances. "Better yet, don't. Maybe he should see what you really think."

Her jaw firmed hard as she ignored the urge to turn into the verbal jabbing but dropped her tone enough to thrash back. "And you're just pissed because he likes what he sees of me already."

"Put Tig's hours on my tab." He tossed to the older woman as he stepped back into their space, Trager's bike sounding up a thunder behind him as he pulled against her pocket to tuck her forward.

"I can - "

"Don't argue with me, Althea. Don't have the time for a proper fight." He caught up against her, his hands drawing her jaw up so that he could run his thumbs on her cheeks, plying a kiss from her with a rushed charm before a back stepped wink. "Behave yourselves, ladies."

"You go watch him, Chibs." Gemma threw after him as she started back toward the office on a pair of boots that Ally was actually a bit jealous of. "Pussy can wait."

"Sure could," He agreed sharply as he kept guiding his steps backwards toward his bike, tugging his gloves on with a sharpened look toward the older woman. "if it was just pussy I was wantin', Gem. You let me mind your boy and my own business at once, yeah?"

She bit down on the urge to smile into his words as the office door thumped closed, thinking better of gloating and cocking him an appreciative glance as he gave her a quick nod and turned his long stride toward his bike.


	17. Chapter 17

"No comment, huh?" she accepted the keys with a gentled hand, studying the pained and aching way Unser was shifting his shoulders as he handed them off in the middle of the parking lot.

"The fact that my opinion wasn't wanted was made pretty clear, Ally." There was a flocking of betrayal to his words, a gray sheen over sweated skin. "By the both of you."

Her head cast up sharply, a knowing look washing annoyance into the color of her eyes like watered down paint. "Did he… Wayne, I'm sorry."

He just snorted and threw a hand between them as he shook his head, the limited control he'd had on his patience suddenly cracking open into the sun, "Wake up, Althea. Jesus Christ. You can't play house here. This club puts an end to their women, one way or another. And you damn well know it."

She cocked her glance aside at the desperate crack of honesty in his rasped tone, glance lining its way back toward the Teller-Morrow office window. Gemma was watching them with a high lifted jaw and obvious distaste on her face. But there was also a pegging of interest in her eyes, something that glittered of curiosity. Something else that looked like a manic sort of fear. As soon as the older woman realized they were looking toward each other her chin inched a fraction higher, just before her shoulder turned on the window.

"And yet that one's still running the show."

"You don't ever wanna be Gemma Teller, Ally." The saddened swing of his voice was suddenly devoid of anger and flush with a heart broken hopelessness. "Trust me."

Ally turned a glance over his face, a clattering of certainty clear in her eyes. "No, I don't."

"Tara was the… the balance of reality here. And at least she had some dignity once. And she's gone." he shook his head slowly, "What terrifies me is that I can see the both of them in you. The best and the worst of them."

The accusation and intimation he'd laid at her feet had her chest trapping up into a sudden proud swing of almost rage, "Go to hell, Wayne."

"Stop letting him bring you into this over and over again." He told her sharply as he turned away from the discussion, dismissing it. "You're a fucking officer of the law."

"And you're a hypocritical son of a bitch." She leveled back on a hissed tone.

His response was a hand behind himself and a cast off of words, "But I'm also right."

* * *

Maybe her internal store of frustration was bleeding into her routine. Maybe. Because as she leaned her hips onto the interrogation table she intentionally clipped her boot onto the chair the battered man was sitting in, making him wince as it landed on the seat edge between his legs. His eyes were rattled up ready for talking, breathing heavy through his mouth due to the fact that most of his face was a pulped mess of bruises and a shattered nose. Something sickened in her stomach when she realized she was more proud of Telford's hand taking the disgusting prick to the floor than she was sympathetic to his broken parts.

"You waived your right to a lawyer." She shrugged her shoulders back, foot wedging forward slightly to force him jolting farther back in the chair, guarding his crotch as much as he could with his hands still cuffed behind him. "Why?"

"Easier this way." He spoke softly, eyes trapping from the other officer by the door and down on to the way she was keeping a hesitance from bearing down on his groin.

Inside information had its uses.

And she swallowed the guilt she had at using it to her advantage.

She wanted this over with.

"How so?" she shrugged her shoulders in a supposedly carefree manner, a put on smile riding her lips slowly. "I'm not going to hurt you. I'm not threatening you. Looks like someone already did a bang up job of that."

There were days, long days, when irony had its uses too.

"I want a deal." He blinked up at her, leaning his body farther back in his chair even as he said it.

"And I want my own personal cabana boy to bring me drinks." She wedged the toe of her boot a fraction forward on a shied smile toward her deputy, a sweetened up tone, and a turned head. "Life just isn't fair, now is it, Dulane?"

"No, ma'am." He responded, lazily leaning his hand onto the door handle as his gun belt cocked on his hip. "It really isn't."

"Sorry." She shrugged over the man in the chair.

He squeezed his eyes shut and she couldn't necessarily blame him for wanting to pretend reality was real.

"I need protection."

"I need names." She responded softly, easing her foot back on an angle that saved his battered balls from any more retribution, her eyes turning back to her second. "What do you need, Duly?"

"Could use a raise, LT." He shrugged lazily, looking as though he was supposedly bored with the interaction, but a catching mirth on the way they shared a glance. "Catholic school tuition ain't cheap."

"I'm not giving you anything until I get - "

"You're not getting a goddamn thing until I do." She pointedly shattered his argument, letting her head lean farther to an angle. "You're out of options, Healy. Because I'll let you sit on a parole violation until I can drop your ass in the local yard."

He flicked her a cagey glance, breathing whistling between wet lips again.

"Or I dump charges and release you. Wash my hands of it." She shrugged as she stood and stepped away, her tone riding suddenly low and spitting. "The boys outside of the law don't seem to like your face all that much. And the boys in Gen Pop don't much like men who fuck with children. Seems ladies don't need to get their hands dirty when so many eager gentlemen will take care of such problems for them."

"Okay."

She smiled ruefully into the whisper he'd leveled at her back and she caught the knowingly amused brow arch her deputy gave her. "Take his statement, Nick."

He nodded as he tugged the door open for her. "Yes, ma'am."

* * *

"One of the big fish you caught me just happens to be a shot caller for August Marks. Surprise, surprise."

He flinched his jaw tight into the realization that the sarcastic twist in her tone wasn't an attempt to be cute, dropping his keys to the table. "You keep them separate? Don't let 'em near each other, Ally. Just - "

"How about you just let me do my job, Telford?" there was a snapping starkness in her voice as the bottom of the whiskey bottle thunked onto the counter. "Okay?"

Filip arched a brow into the obvious frustration that was keeping her shoulders back but her head down forward, laying his voice quiet into the line of her back. "Who pissed on your rainbow, sunshine?"

"And what exactly were you pissing on when you went after Wayne Unser?" the sudden turn of her hips against the counter cracked open a heat of fury down the front of her and it waved toward him in a way that both riled annoyance and gave him a good shot of lust straight to the groin. "That was completely unnecessary."

"It was necessary." He contradicted sharply as he reached for his keys, prizing them into a glove gripped palm. "Y'don't need him holding this over your head."

She looked over his hand and shook her head, eyes riding his chest to search over his face on a cautious glance, "So you're just going to leave?"

He snorted and lifted the other hand between them. "Doesn't much sound like you want me to stay, Althea."

The beat of silence, the unflinching and unbroken way she just stared at him…

It made him suddenly very conscious of her body and the way she was defensively leaned back into the counter.

They'd been here often enough.

But this… she was skating thinned up ice and he could see it in her eyes.

"What?" he asked quickly. "I took care of a problem. You may not like the way it was done, but it was done."

"He compared me to Gemma and Tara." There was a twisted up confusion in her voice as she gave him a brief shake of the head. "And that… I will never be those women, Filip. One of them dead inside and the other dead in the ground? No, thank you."

He snorted as he studied her, a blink of realization sharing darkness in his eyes. "I never asked you to be."

"Bullshit." She snapped at him tightly. "You just used me to put a man who wants to kill you in prison and now you wanna crawl into my bed."

"It's not bullshit, Ally. We've a deal." He let the keys drop hard back to the table, stalking on her so sharply that it had her hand curling the bottle in a way that could be used as a weapon. "I don't mix my business with my pleasure – pretty as it is, Lieutenant. And we've had this discussion plenty before."

She was unmoved as he angled into the front of her, his fingers pressing a curling weight on the wrist she had on the bottle, keeping it blocked down hard as he looked over her face. "Don't get any grand delusions, love. The club is the club. It's mine. And it's who I am."

"And this?" she asked tightly, her lungs reaching for air.

"It's just what I want." His other hand caught the back of her neck fast enough that she couldn't necessary stop him completely, but she shunting break of her free hand into his ribs coughed him still as his face neared hers. "But it's what I want to keep, Ally."

"You are mixing your business with your pleasure, Filip." She whispered the words quietly, feeling his fingers reflexively pulse tighter into the back of her neck. "Whether you wanna admit it or not. Regardless of whether you tell me what's going on."

"I don't want y'to be Gemma." He shook his head slowly, his eyes studying the way she was biting down on her bottom lip. "And I'm doing everything I can to make sure you don't end up like Tara. But I can't promise you anything else."

He seemed painfully apologetic as he met her eyes again and continued. "That's reality. And that's why I went to Unser. Because his mucking about in this isn't safe."

"He could call Patterson at any time." Her eyes closed as her jaw shied down. "Did you even consider that before you threatened him?"

"He won't." he offered softly. "Trust me."

The flare of darkness as she suddenly looked up at the request gut punched him and he swallowed into the soured way she was studying his eyes. "Trust you? Well, here we are again."

"Welcome back to it." He hushed over her, his forehead gently pressing into hers as she leaned forward. "Will y'let go of the bottle?"

She shrugged minutely, "I haven't decided yet."

"Can I have a kiss hello, then? Before you bludgeon me?" his voice had recovered some bend of comforting. "Least you could do."

She shrugged on an almost pout, "Maybe."

His hand pried her close as his mouth met hers, the taste of whiskey welling so warm on her tongue that he damn near drowned himself in it. "You're a brazen fuckin' handful, Althea."

The lazily subtle blink she gave him as she smiled was enough to pull him under completely. "You can let go now, Filip."

"Unfortunately, love," he sighed out, "no, I can't."

Her smile flared up blinding like a night-time fire, "I know."


	18. Chapter 18

At least she'd had the grace and logic to stop pushing on him, letting her hands just wipe down the line of his back along with the sluicing water as he drove his head harder into the wall of her shower, his arms braced above his head as he stretched out a middle aged weariness that seemed to crawl every muscle he owned as of late. The slow laying press of her into his back was a light touch to comfort rather than urge and he just exhaled into it, letting the water run over his face as he turned his head.

"C'mere." The exhausted rake of his whisper was obviously leveling far more affectionate than it had earlier, his patience restored by the hard spray of hot-hot water and the smell of her soap blooming in the already mineral scented water.

He reached back enough to draw her forward, lifting an arm just a fraction enough to tuck her under the way he was leaning. Filip angled his head to the side, drawing it back enough to curl her back into the damp tile before rubbing his nose against her already wetted forehead. His arms braced above her while he took small and slow kisses off her, keeping his movements lazily long and peaceful. He was tired of fighting her and so he didn't otherwise touch her. She was his solace sometimes, and having that illusion rattled made his hands burn up. Ally tipped her head back, letting her wet hair catch against the way his hands were clasped at the wall. He lifted his fingers away from it, using his forearms to balance his weight as he studied the petulant look that slackened her features.

"Don't do that." She argued into his throat as she pulled him close by the hips, her body warm wet against his. "You're punishing me."

"I'm not." He sighed it out as he let his eyes close into the kisses she was stacking up his jaw line.

"You are too." She nudged into his ribs as she pressed her thighs tighter to his tensed ones. "You're punishing me because I had the audacity to tell you the truth, Vice President."

"Audacity's a word for it." He agreed with a tweaked smirk.

"You can't not touch me." Her playful whisper was soft but it echoed in his ear louder than the water that was needling the back of his head.

A smile touched on his lips again, flickering there as he angled his head into the run of her tongue on his ear, "Y'sure 'bout that?"

"Oh, I'm positive, Scotty." Her tongue skated the run of one scar before her hands pressed back into the wall, her hips leaning away from him so that she could watch him quietly.

"So it's a battle of wills, then?" he licked a kiss off her lips but kept his hands unmoving as he grinned into the challenge, studying the playfully teasing way she was leaning forward without touching the arch of his body.

Ally lifted her mouth harder up into his, stepping into a strong kiss that had him grunting surprise, keeping her hands back as she sucked against his tongue. She ran the kiss tighter against him, faintly hearing the frustrated slap he put into the wall as he growled back against her lips but didn't drop to reach for her. His hips jutted her back into the wall on a rush, pinning her hands behind her back as she smiled from his kiss.

"That's touching." She admonished with a scandalized glare, hair completely soaked down her shoulders. "You cheating bastard."

"Hands still on the wall." He sharpened back over her, his forearms tensing on a shrugged twitch as he shook his head. "Doesn't count."

She cocked her head slowly, quietly searching over the cocky smirk that was riding his lips, her eyes lidded as she slowly shook her head.

"Giving up already?" he grinned over her as he tauntingly drummed his fingers against the tile by her ears, a flush of humor suddenly shattering apart the anger and exhaustion that had haunted his shoulders earlier. "I'm disappointed in you, Althea."

"Christ," she exhaled softly, a curling smile on her lips. "I do love it when you say my name."

"No, no, no, darlin'." he lifted his hand off the wall, aiming a finger in her direction. "No sweetness. None of your pretty talk. That's - "

"You say it like it belongs to you." She lifted her jaw into a softening glance as she pressed into his hips, hands still flush to wet tile while her teeth scraped her bottom lip. "You can keep it, ya know?"

"Now, that's cheating." He aimed his finger over her lips but didn't touch against them, his head cocked in humored annoyance, eyes full bright with affection as the water finally flushed cold and he tucked her closer to the wall.

"I love winning." She pressed quickly forward, kissing his fingertip before nipping her teeth against it, letting him groan as he grazed both hands past her jaw into wet hair and dropped his mouth against hers as she caught fingers on his forearms.

She fell into laughter against him as he stepped away and tugged her from the shower, dragging her up onto his hips as he pulled another kiss from her. His hands keeping her tight and the taste of his smile were enough of a distraction that she didn't necessarily care that he'd left the water running as he hauled her toward the bedroom.

* * *

"Filip." The mattress was still cooled damp and he was curled tight into her back, arm wrapped around her heat so that his hand was tucked up under the shirt she'd pulled on in a sleep driven chill. The flex of his body against hers had landed the moment she'd breathed out his name, the both of them hearing the sounds that were coming from near the back door.

"Aye." There was a rigid line to his spine and he dropped his hand, catching her fingers and angling his hips forward so that the both of them leaned together in a fluid press to reach for the bedside drawer. "Hush."

Another jerked sound came off the southern corner of the house and he nodded his jaw into the side of her head, pushing the table still as she pulled the drawer into silence, the both of them reaching for familiar weapons. He pressed the other hand into her back, guarding her movements as she slid off the mattress and crossed the room, his body following hers easily.

"You have to trust me, Althea." The dropped gauge of his tone barely registered sound, one hand lifted as he pointed toward the way she was already backed into the wall beside her bedroom door.

"Then lead." She nodded toward the door, her stance already blocked out and Glock guarded by both hands as she cocked her head into the thunked sound of a door getting popped.

The far too practiced way he slid past her had her shoulders tightening, a darkened up humor shaking her head as she watched him tip a glance out the bedroom door. "Thank Christ you put your pants on."

"Not now, my love. I'm busy." He hissed as he cocked his head in a similar blackness of sardonic amusement.

She just gave him a quick half shrug as she nodded to the door. "Go."


	19. Chapter 19

"Gimme the Glock." He stalled her up in the doorway with a guttered whisper, half his body wedged outward as he squinted into the hall, hand reached out toward her blindly and sliding against her leg. "Give it to me, Ally. Now."

She shook her head in frustration but accepted the way he leaned back his Berretta and took her department firearm. The realization that his brain could accelerate past the multiple possible avenues of what was about to happen – already cleaning up the mess that had yet to be created. It blinded her astounded for a moment and it was the shift of his hips away from hers snapped her attention back into the way he caught her eyes before nodding.

And then he just tipped away from her.

* * *

She didn't necessarily appreciate the fact that he'd used her as a luring bait in the bedroom doorway, but then he'd also placed himself ten steps closer to the kitchen as he'd back angled into the generally unused half bath and motioned for her to stay farther down the hall. But she'd told him to lead and for a fleeting moment wished she could stop to enjoy the vision of it. But all too quiet. It was too quiet. She sharpened a breath into the deep down beating of silence, debating a step up the hall before she heard a scrabbling noise echoing at her.

"Goddamn it!"

It wasn't his voice.

Though it was familiar while slurred.

But it wasn't his voice.

"Telford?!"

And if he wasn't going to answer then she didn't give a damn about holding back.

"Do you know him?" the rage that both paled and aged his face as she stepped back into the hall, weapon raised - it was a shade of the man that seemed nearly unrecognizable. And for a moment he was formidably terrifying.

His arm was hooked hard up under the other man's throat, a blade she hadn't even seen him grab for turned sidelong into pale skin while the other hand kept her weapon aimed into the smaller man's temple. She searched his angry face sharply, shaking her head minutely in confusion as she exhaled into the shifted darkness of an echo of who she'd been sleeping next to and what was standing in front of her.

"Jarry." He snapped her attention back. "Do you know him?"

"Yes. Jesus." she answered harshly with a quick nod of her head, stepping swiftly forward to prize her fingers onto Telford's arm as she angled the Berretta down. "He's one of my deputies."

His head cocked into a scrutinizing darkness before he inhaled through his nose and dropped the hold, letting the younger man slump onto her hallway carpet. "Shitty deputy."

"Oh, go to hell." The blond that was crumpled to his knees on her carpet was palming against the thin slice that had grazed his throat. "Shit bag."

"Yeah?" Chibs asked brashly, shoulders bent forward as the Glock leveled down faster than she could break between them. "Repeat it, Nicky."

"Chibs." She slapped into his chest, rebounding him back slightly as she shook her head and let air rattle off her lips. "Let him up."

She offered a hand into the way the younger man shifted up onto his feet, refusing her help and leaning his body still forward as he kept pressure along his throat, "If you knew it was me why'd you - "

"Don't like the way you look at her." Telford explained with a taunting smirk before lifting her sidearm back to her. "And I didn't at first."

"Are you even speaking English?" Dulane shot up at him and Ally stepped her hips easily into the way Telford turned, her hands lifting both guns into his chest as she intentionally laid herself into his space to distract him from the way he was biting down on his cheeks before answering sharply back.

"Okay." She nodded him a calming smile, relief finally finding the knots in her shoulders and flaring an ache there, "Okay. Take these. Relax."

"Little tense, Ally." He shrugged into her as he accepted both weapons. "One of 'yer boys just happens to jack your back door at three in the morning? He's lucky I didn't slit his throat."

"I saw the bike out back. I just wanted to make sure everything was all right." Dulane flushed back against her hall wall, his head tipping back as he slumped a little, eyes reddened up even in the shadows. "I obviously wasn't aware that this was your new loading zone, Telford."

"What'd y'just say?" The acidic vitriol that laced his tone tweaked her back up.

"Shut it, Dulane." She caught against Telford's wrists, drawing them up slightly to lock between them as she started walking him backwards down the hall, drawn in and ached up by the twitched fury that was tamping on his jaw. "Hey, go put them away."

"Oi." He cast over her shoulder as he continued stepping backwards toward her bedroom slowly, "You stink like a Brighton fuckin' distillery, Nicky. Classy, son."

"What the hell, Lieutenant?"

"Kitchen." She aimed him down opposite direction of the hallway. "You need to dry out."

* * *

"Why'd he have your gun, Lieutenant?"

"In case he shot you. Self defense looks better on a sheriff than a biker." She snapped over him tightly, setting the coffee down hard onto the table in front of him. "Jesus, Nick."

"I get that." There was a lazed haze to his voice, his glance pointed. "I meant, why'd you let him have it?"

She flinched into the question and turned away from it, not sure if she even had an answer that was logical. Or realistic.

"Because I don't hesitate, Nicky."

Dulane lifted the coffee and sniffed at it, "You can stop fuckin' calling me that, Scotty."

"See? Not sexy when he says it." He cast in her direction as he grabbed the chair beside the other man, turning it round so he could lean his arms into the back, shirt tugged on and a cigarette already tucked in his fingers. "So tell me why you been trackin' through her back yard, huh?"

"He lives on the opposite side of the block." She supplied softly as her hips backed up against the counter, her own coffee tucked in her palm and the smooth skin of her thighs a little more visible under the t-shirt than he'd like. "His kids cut my yard to walk to school. Sarah know where you are?"

The other officer gave her a wincing glance before swallowing down a gulp of coffee, hissing off the heat of it. "Sorta."

"Carreira foot the bill again?" she asked with an arched brow. "Just the booze this time, right?"

"Yes, ma'am." The younger man sipped against the cup, his eyes bleary and unfocused as he stared across the table.

"Done this before, huh?" Filip panned her a darkening glance, flicking open his Zippo with a near accusatory bite to his tone.

Ally rolled him an annoyed glance before dragging an ashtray off the back of the counter and laying it to the table, "Not like this. What happened, Nick?"

"I'm on my knees, LT." he let his head slump back on the chair and Ally caught the arched glance Telford gave her as he hissed down a lungful of smoke. "I need hours."

She leaned her shoulders forward tightly, ignoring the interested and smirking way the Scot watched her as her voice graveled, "You don't get the hours if you can't stay sober."

"I need the money. Tranny on Sarah's Civic's shot, mortgage is due, tuition payments, fucking soccer cleats."

"Althea." Filip's jaw lifted a fraction as he flicked the ash, stretching his back up so that his shoulders leveled, questioning in his glance.

She met his eyes briefly, nodding silent agreement before dipping her head at an angle. "Pay your mortgage, buy the cleats."

"TM's got the transmission." Telford sucked down another swallow of smoke as she gave him a shallow smile of appreciation.

The younger man blinked him blatant confusion but shrugged into it. "Thank you."

"Thank her." The older of the two men pushed up from the chair, catching the way she pointed down the hall as he stepped away. "That debt ain't on me, Nicky."

"Gun cabinet." She offered after the Scot quietly, catching the nod he let off before lifting his hand in acknowledgment, smoke still lingering after him.

She stared the younger man down over her coffee, noting the interested way he studied her as his eyes started to clear a little. "Ask me."

"What the hell you doing, Lieutenant?" he asked sharply, letting the cup hit the table a bit louder than necessary.

"Taking what I want and keeping what I have." She murmured over the steam from the coffee. "I hear it's the Charming way."

"Jarry - "

"I will do what I need to in order to make this place safe again." Ally dipped her coffee cup to the counter as Telford stepped back into the kitchen, her jaw lifting into the older man's movements as he dropped one of a few familiar envelopes onto the table. "Maybe he's my reward."

"Or curse, darlin'." Telford winked at her before laying both palms onto the table, his head angling over the deputy, "The lovely Lieutenant is going to have a chat with your wife soon, ask about the kiddies and school. Because if this money goes down your throat or up your fuckin' nose, you'll owe the club and not her. Clear?"

"Clear." The other officer nodded, eyes pinned down toward the table as he avoided the other man's grazing tone.

"Good." Filip stretched his back up, catching her eyes as he stepped away from the table and wiped his fingers into her shirt. "He breaks into your house again and I'll kill him, Althea."

"Clear." She agreed into a hushing nod, a smirking riding her lips as he cocked her a knowing glance. "I'll walk him out."

"That boy has a real mommy problem, Ally." He hushed over her with a teasing that was finally welling warmth back between them. "And he's pinning it on you."

"Thank you," her fingers brushed against the way his hand strafed off her. "I'll keep that in mind."


	20. Chapter 20

He didn't think she actually realized that she was pouting as she stalled up on the bedroom carpeting, her eyes tracking from the empty bed to the way he was cast back into one of her chairs. The lines in the face she made, right between her eyes, they were almost adorable and he just laid his head back on the chair, joint tucked in his fingers as he watched her sit to the edge of the bed facing him.

"He's got a bit of a thing for you, yeah?" he asked lazily into the quietness of her movements, "Can't keep his eyes to himself when it comes to you. He seein' something else when he puts his wife to the sheets? Laying you down in his head, Althea?"

"Really?" she exhaled a bemused breath, lips twitching a smile in his direction as she crossed one smooth leg over the other, "You're gonna get jealous over a twelve year old with a hard on for his female CO? It's actually a pretty normal response. Generally, they either hate me or they sexualize me."

"He just let himself into your home uninvited." He scraped the taste of the weed off his bottom lip with his teeth, "Drunk, angry and as welcome as he pleases. Jealousy isn't what I'm aimin' for, here."

"But you are jealous." She admonished with a wickedly warm crush of knowing in her voice. "It's burning you up, isn't it?"

He arched her a dry look of reproach, avoiding the question completely, "Think he'll keep his trap shut?"

"Does it matter anymore?" her hair graced her shoulders as she shook her head, breathing the question out softly between them. "It's gonna get out. One way or another."

"Is it worth it, Lieutenant?"

She frowned into the sobered melancholy of the question, a true honesty sheening his face in a way she didn't often see. None of the bravado or bluster he usually preceded each step with. His legs were splayed out tired and long from the chair and he'd sunken into it tiredly, no attention to the awkward press of his spine. Ally blinked a glance back over his face, watching the sudden sturdy revival of composure as his eyes glittered hard again, jaw shaking to the side as he sucked down some smoke. The flux of emotion that he allowed her to witness, it was such a stark high contrast to the flat and deadened sharpness she'd seen on his face earlier, with his blade at a throat and her gun at a temple. The variance in the man was jarring and she sucked down a long breath as her thoughts scrambled to lay one image over the other.

"Is it?" she asked softly.

She had a damn annoying habit of answering his questions with rhetorical repeats and instead of giving her a response he just panned her a flattened glare.

"He broke into my house and then walked out with an envelope of dirty cash, Filip. I'm not all that worried about him causing trouble." Her shoulders stretched back as her hands pressed the mattress. "Not to mention that I've had him on the ropes for a positive piss test since I started this job. He's not a bad guy… but he's not necessarily a great cop either."

"You mean to use him where you can. Y've already been twisting him." There was a sudden half smile of understanding cocking his lips and deepening his scars. "My sweet girl's just a wicked tyrant after all."

"I can be both at once, ya know?" she shot off before laying back on the mattress, lungs expelling the pent breath that had gone stale in her lungs. "I'm assuming the cost of the transmission comes off my cut."

"Business is so distasteful sometimes." He murmured ruefully as he studied the flush and innocently vulnerable way she was stretched back, one of her hands dragging her hair off her face. "Don't you think I'd lay claim to you in every greasy corner of this town if I could?"

"I think the day you do is the day I'll actually start truly trusting you." Her whisper worried the air above her softly. "But I don't expect that day will ever come, Filip. Welcome to reality."

"So," he jerkily stubbed the joint into the ashtray that he'd perched on the table beside him. "is it worth it, Ally?"

Her face was blanked cold and calculating as she turned her head against the mattress, eyes meeting his from the flattened angle, "It would be if you'd just shut the hell up about it and come back to bed."

"Y'want me to shut up? It's usually you chewin' this up." He broke the seething tease at her quietly. "Ask me nicely."

She just quirked him a disbelieving glance, "Get your cute Scottish ass over here. I'm cold."

"That you are, love." He dipped his head forward as he leaned from the chair, his voice laying a dank reality into her assessment even though she hadn't meant it the way he implied. "Maybe that's why we've held on this long."

She watched the weight of him relax onto the mattress beside her, her head turned into the way he leaned onto his side and let his head settle onto his hand, the other palm laying flatly possessive against her stomach.

"Maybe I just don't want to let you go." Her voice was trading into tired admittance and soured petulance. "I don't see why everyone else in this shitty little town gets to take whatever they want and I don't."

"Because you took an oath?" he asked over her, voice treading into a darkened humor as his fingers rubbed the cotton of her shirt into the tightened muscles of her stomach.

"I know we haven't known each other all that long but have I ever seemed like the type of woman who puts a lot of faith in promises, Telford?"

"Not in the least." He shook his head over her before dropping a light kiss to her forehead.

"Then you shouldn't be surprised." She curled into him then and he shifted up higher onto the mattress, enough to tug her leg up over his hip and drag her into the turn of his chest. He reached over her hip to drag the corner of the comforter over the slope of her back and onto what he could cover of the both of them.

"Y'do surprise me, Althea." He forced her head to cradle into his arm with a sure and guiding hand, brushing his nose back and forth into her hair as he considered how much money she'd just let walk away from her with little regard to the loss. "Often enough."

"How easily could you have shot him in the head?" the question was wrapped into the way her hand bunched his shirt up as she clung closer, tucking into him so that she didn't have to face the answer she knew was coming.

He let his jaw rub along the side of her head, eyes shut against the nervous caution in his response. "Easier than you'd like."

"Thought so."

* * *

He'd been debating the pause throughout Jackson's entire interaction with the crooked cop who was snarking and making biting comments at them from behind the counter. And at first, he'd decided to let it pass, assuming that she was right and jealousy had been coiling up in his gut like a low laying snake for a couple days. But he paused a few steps from the bell jangling of the door, one hand brushing the glass of the display case while the other tapped lightly into his President's lower back. Unable to let go of the gut gnawing he was getting from the memory of a couple nights before.

"Gimme a minute here, Jackie." He lifted his jaw up into the way discreet blue eyes turned on him in confused scrutiny, Happy's face just as bewildered from behind the other man's shoulder. "I'll follow to Scoops. Take Hap."

"What exactly are you gonna get from Barosky that we haven't already bargained for?" the accusation dropping heat into Jax's tone was far more than questioning. It was verging on distrustful.

"Following one crooked cop to another." Chibs shrugged his whisper forward. "Making sure our asses aren't hanging out."

"Is she becoming a problem that needs to be addressed, Chibs?" the younger man's face walled up, his voice panning deep and gritting, "Because I will address it. And you may not like the result."

"Not her." He shook his head minutely as he lifted a calming hand into the President's chest, dropping his shoulders to intentionally douse the flared heat of the situation. "One of her deputies is unhinged. I wanna know how far. And whether it's going to come round on us. That's all."

"You boys staying for tea and scones?" Barosky snapped up after them. "Or can I get back to my business?"

"It's pre-emptive." Chibs murmured as he met Jax's eyes. "And it's just business."

"Is she?" Jax stepped slowly backwards with his hands lifted, his head tipping at an angle and face unreadable, "Just business? Because I happen to know that's bullshit, Chibs. You told me, remember?"

"Aye, I did." He agreed tightly as he leaned his weight into the counter, "I haven't lied to you, Jackson. You know where I'm at."

Teller bit onto the inside of his cheek before nodding and lifting a hand toward Barosky in acceptance. "Make it quick. If you're not at Scoops in an hour, I'm sending Quinn after your ass. I need my VP."

He nodded slowly in silent agreement.

Swallowing down the nagging question of whether it was a matter of protection or a threat of patrol.


	21. Chapter 21

"You and Sonny Boy having a disagreement over politics or pussy?"

Chibs pursed his lips together as the other man set a cup of coffee to the table before him, shaking his head into the biting comment before lifting his glance. "Don't know what you're talkin' about, Barosky. Me and the boy are fine."

"Really?" the older man let his body flack back into the opposite chair, humor scattering over his face as he lifted his own cup and ranged it between them. "Cuz that little scene pretty much put everything I've been hearing into perfect perspective."

"Yeah?" Chibs cocked sharply between them, "And what have you been hearing?"

"That Ally Jarry's got herself a prime guard dog curled up on her bed." Charlie gave him a crooked smirk that smacked of being too far to one side of smug. "Not that I can blame you. That's some very fine real estate up under that uniform. I like her… when she's not being a haughty bitch."

He sucked down an intentionally calming breath, lifting the coffee to sip against it before angling his head back up. "Sure, but I like the sass. Keeps her wild."

He exhaled into the way Barosky turned out a broad chuckle, shaking his head as he resettled his position in the chair, laying his shoulders back in a more relaxed manner. The retired cop was shaking his head in a slow lathe of back and forth amusement, sipping at his coffee as he stared off forward. A slow nod finally found a temporary safety between them before he turned a glance back to Chibs, lifting the coffee in a mocking salute.

"You're a madman, Telford. I can appreciate a little lunacy."

Chibs cocked him a half smile that didn't really reach to his eyes. "Not here to talk about her."

"Didn't figure you wanted to share the details with a dirty old man." Barosky grinned at him quickly. "I'd pay for photos, though."

"You're ridin' my patience now, Charlie." He asserted sharply and arched back in the chair as the other man bent into another chuckle.

"What do you need?"

"Deputy Dulane." Chibs answered sharply. "He's swinging."

"He's a weekend junkie who binges and fucks off on his wife." Barosky shook his head quickly as he settled back on his chair again. "From what I know of Jarry, she's not stupid enough to trust him all that much or for all that long."

"She's got him pinned down on multiple offenses. Keepin' him on hold." Telford hissed quietly over his coffee, head cocked into the conversation. "That gonna be a problem?"

"Could be." Barosky winced a frayed honesty back toward the other man. "Seriously, Scotty. I cut him loose over a year ago because he's a shady little shit. He's lucky he's still walking."

"So his extracurricular payroll's been light awhile." Chibs surmised quietly.

"Which works for her if she wants to pay for the addiction just to keep him on point, I guess." The other man slowly slid him a questioning glance. "But I can't imagine the county pays enough to afford her lifestyle and a blackmailing coke habit."

"That's true." He agreed softly and took another sip of the coffee, intentionally keeping his face a paled blank.

"Well, fuck me." Barosky snorted his shoulders back farther. "Never thought I'd see the day."

At Chibs' questioning look the older man shook his head slowly. "What?"

"The cash is already coming down the pipeline, isn't it? Are you playing her or is she playing you?"

Telford leaned a shrug forward on his shoulders. "We take turns. And that boy's not gettin' a funding from anyone. Just an incentive."

"Incentive only lasts until it's gone." The former cop watched him as he stood, head rocking back and forth slowly. "You remember what I told you."

"I will." He nodded quick agreement before finishing off the coffee and setting the cup down, glasses tugged from his pocket as he started to turn. "Thank you."

"She could be a fine asset - and you're a Westminster worthy dog to have, Scotty." Barosky laid out after him as he headed toward the door, the words cautiously low. "But you both need to be smart about this. Because Teller's not just gonna hand over the leash with a smile and tip of the hat."

He stalled up and bit down against his lip, scraping his teeth against it before turning and letting his hands hook against his waist. He considered the older man a moment, forcing himself to rattle a layer of oxygen both into and out of his lungs as he faced the blatant and damn near concerned look of honesty in the other man's eyes.

"And you know it."

"My loyalty is to my club, Barosky." He murmured slowly. "She knows that, loud and clear. And if y'keep referring to me as a goddamn dog, I'll bite."

Charlie gave him a broad grin. "Don't doubt it."

He hesitated another moment, catching the amusement on the older man's face. "You'll call me if you hear something I'd like to know?"

Barosky shrugged off a grin, "Only because I have a whole new sordid respect for the big brass balls on our new Sheriff."

Chibs gave him a smile before tugging his glasses on, "Huge."

"I gather." Barosky was still laughing behind him as he rang the bell on the swinging door, cringing into both sounds as they jangled up his spine together.

* * *

"So what's the problem over at the San Joaquin Sheriffs?" Some of the frustration had laxed out of the younger man's shoulders and he was leaned back in his chair, cigarette smoldering as he cast a sidelong glance toward his Vice President. "Are we worrying?"

"No." Chibs shook his head slowly. "Not yet."

"I'm worried." Tig offered across the table. "If you're having chats with Barosky - "

"One of Jarry's deputies has a predisposition for snorting coke and fucking around on his family." He explained between the two of them, avoiding any other discussion as to why it was riding his nerves. "He's shifty and throwing weight. Barosky cut him off awhile back and he's flailing, tryin' to find new bankroll. I wanted background in case he became a problem."

"Is it a problem?" Jax asked tightly, though Chibs wasn't sure if he was actually asking about Dulane or Jarry.

"Barosky's on him." He offered between the other two men, shoulders back in his chair as he sighed. "I'm not gonna worry on it."

It was the taste of the lie that clawed up his throat.

It tasted like gutter water and bile.

* * *

"Hey." Tig's voice was soft and clipped with a brotherly sort of understanding as he slid into the booth opposite. "You plan on staying here all night?"

Chibs flicked him up a shrugged glance before looking back down over the emptied table, glance slightly unfocused and hazed.

"Feelin' squeezed, aren't ya?" Trager loosened his posture and slung his arms up onto the back of the booth seat. "Sides pushing in?"

"He sends me to her and then jerks me back." His voice was a slow grit, words cautiously quiet as he angled the other man a glittered glance. "He lets me have it and then he takes it away. Dog with a fuckin' bone."

"He's just lookin' out for you, Chibby." Tig whispered. "For all of us. We can't trust a cop. Plain and simple."

The sudden sideways jerk of the other man's jaw had Tig lifting his palms into the air between them. "I like her, Chibs. I do. You know I do…"

"But?"

"No." Trager leaned forward into the sincere explanation. "It's not a 'but'. It's an 'if'. I like her if she's being straight with us. I like her if she can make this work for everyone. I like her if she's not gonna pull the trigger on my brother. There's a difference."

"I don't tell her anything." The Scot anchored his voice deep with emotion. "I don't. She knows where I stand."

"You fallin' for a fairy tale with a badge and a gun belt, brother?" the sadness in his friend's question didn't go unnoticed and Chibs just stared helplessly up into the question. "Jesus Christ. You'll never forgive yourself if she turns on us, Chibs. It'll end you."

Telford exhaled a breath that sounded near on a despondent laugh, "I'm done in already, Tigger."


	22. Chapter 22

His brother had left him a bottle but no glass, the sound of the whiskey leveling to the booth table an offer of apologetic peace between them. And the look that Trager had married between them as he'd set it down was a sympathetic agreement that no glass was necessarily needed in situations such as these. He'd nodded appreciation into blue eyes and offered a half made smile that was meant to brook a silent treaty. Accepted in the way that Trager squeezed against his shoulder before stepping out the door.

And he'd considered the unopened bottle awhile, staring it down while his heart and head rioted their own bar fight brawl.

Trager assumed that the conversation had had an end.

That that's where things fell flattened out and prettily sewn up.

Unfortunately, he didn't have an end to this situation. Not one that brokered a peace with both rational thoughts and unintended feelings.

He hadn't meant any of it to come to this.

He hadn't meant to ever want to find her anywhere.

Head said he had no options left but to drink this mess into a numbing sleep and ignore the fact that it would wake him up once more in the morning. But then the nagging that was pinching his chest up was exactly what kept him from opening the bottle. The way she'd be vastly unavailable to him if he soused every thought he had of her until unconscious. His hand was working on its own as he grabbed the bottle forward, shifting to open it and stalling as he considered the label once again.

If he passed himself out on the warmly dank piss of cheap whiskey, he couldn't find her in the middle of the night. And that was probably his best bet at surviving.

But they were all fast coming upon the point where all bets were off, all gates closed.

And he wasn't willing to let up on the one last gamble at winning something that was possibly more than a blood match. He let the brawl inside him end when he loosed the bottle across the room, all shattered glass and sound and a choice that was trickling down the wall to the scent of home.

* * *

Her spine instantly framed up in trepidation. She searched over the cocked way he'd parked the bike at the bottom of the department's front steps, taking up the walkway and, by the set of his shoulders, not giving a damn that he had. Ally shook her head slowly, eyes rolling slightly as she stared down over him and the way the sodium lights sickened the usual two tone dark and pale of him. She lifted her bag higher on her shoulder, stroking her hair back off her face as she started down the steps toward him, catching the way the other officers that were letting off duty were angling to the sides.

"You want a citation, Telford?" she asked softly, realizing he still hadn't looked up from the way he was straddling the bike. "I left my ticket book in my office. If you're here to start shit with Duly then - "

"I want," his head still didn't lift but his jaw angled her way, "to be able to sleep tonight, Althea."

"Okay." She cocked a confused glance over him but didn't reach for the downward drop of his head, "Hey? Look at me."

"I shouldn't be here." He shook his head up and back at her, eyes so dark in the sallow lighting that he looked manic. Maybe he was a little manic. And an unstable Chibs Telford was a predicament she wasn't sure she wanted to venture too far into…

He was shaking his head at her in a scattered confusion. "I shouldn't."

"Hey," She dropped the bag and stepped into the side of the bike, drawn into the way his shoulders curved farther forward than usual, her thigh laying into the bent up angle of his knee as she reached against leather. "Hi. You're already here. Stop worrying about whether you should or shouldn't be."

His glance scattered back and forth to her sides, seemingly suddenly concerned with the fact that people were passing by them at random intervals. Most of her people were intentionally pretending that they didn't notice the hunk of metal parked at the bottom of the steps and doing a piss poor job of it. She ignored their supposedly surreptitious glances, leaning her head over his as she curled her fingers around his wrist from the bottom, letting her fingertips stroke up under the leather of his glove.

"What are you doing, Chibs?"

"Losing my mind." His whisper was finally veering back toward some semblance of normalcy but his voice was scraping up dry. "Jesus, Ally."

"What are you doing?" she asked again in a lowered whisper, sincerity and concern on her face.

"Picking you up." He breathed off a dry laughing rush of breath. "Crazy, yeah?"

"It's a really bad idea." She murmured her surprised smile closer to him, digging her nails into the heel of his palm as he closed leather covered fingers against hers. "And I love it."

"Thought y'might." His mouth lifted against hers in a quick and chaste kiss that he had even intended, his eyes dragging hers in a questioning. "It's a damned crazy notion and you've no compass for bad ideas, love."

"What happened?" she shook her head slowly, voice treading lightly into the way his eyes were roving over her lips.

"I'm tired. I just…" The words were an understated underscore to the disgusted exhaustion in his tone, his jaw angling before the rest of his head dipped into a back and forth battle of stuttered up confusion. "I just want rest."

The strong pulling of his accent was proof of his words and it tugged on something in her gut, making her swing closer.

"And?" she asked in softness.

She leaned back from the way he cocked her a wry glance and pressed up on a booted balance, her hand caging his hip as he leaned a leg off the bike and drew up taller, broader than she was. So suddenly sturdy and straight and sure in the way he was pressing over her, a clarity finally reaching his eyes that eased the tensed wiring of her shoulder blades. Her hand curled the hem of his cut, regardless of who could see the movement.

"And what, Telford?" she pulled taunting against it, palm viced on the leather ridged edging. "What else?"

"Lemme take you home." There was a brightness to his eyes a moment, the words sounding awfully almost familiar as he gifted a half smile over her. "Give you a ride?"

Ally snorted off the break of gutter humor, head turning away from the smirking he was giving her, knowing she was getting all the emotion he would loosen. He'd trapped back up on her, locking it down. She leaned into the feeling of his knuckles brushing against her stomach before he tugged on her belt, tucking her tighter forward to draw her attention back to his face.

"It's a bad idea." She told him softly as she met dark eyes, still seeing a slight bit of unbalance on him.

He flicked a judging wince over her face, "It's a one time offer, darlin'."

"Bullshit." She countered with a glance just as thinned as his.

"Y'sure?" he cocked over her, tone biting harshly. "I'm bending here, Althea. And it's killin' me."

Her flinched look was bred by both sadness and sympathy and he shook his head to keep it from engraving any deeper on her features, "But here I am."

"I see that." Ally caught against his fingers and tugged them from her, squeezing against the leather that layered his hand before stepping back to grab her bag. "My whole damn department can see that."

"The point, I suppose." His face was slackened blank, any possible emotions intentionally tampened down with the bite of his flinching jaw.

"Putting your money where your mouth is, VP?" she asked as she tossed the bag in his direction, smiling broadly into the way he grunted as he caught it into his chest.

A true grin delved his dimples into his scars, head cocked slightly, "Thought I already had been."

"Crass." She pointed over him, enjoying the boyish and mischievous laugh he allowed off his lips as he stowed her bag.

"You've ridden before?" He tossed it up along with his jaw as he pulled his helmet up from the bike and on.

The dryly sardonic glance she gave him brought a chuckle up his throat as he caught against the extra helmet he'd snagged from the garage and handed it over.

"Yeh, sure." He straddled the bike and lifted a gloved hand, catching into the way she reached for his fingers, his arm angling back as she slid behind him so that he could squeeze light against her leg. "That's what I thought, Lieutenant."

Her chest against his back was a flushing wealth of pressing warmth he hadn't felt laid up against him in awhile. Sure, the odd moment when he'd doubled out of necessity, or given one of the girls a ride. He hadn't been all that heavy into taking many of the girls out for a long while before she'd given him the eye, though. Too many rushed minutes and too many rough roads. Too many long days that leaned into longer nights wherein he just ended by wanting a blur of whiskey and smoke to welcome him into a mimicry of sleep. Her hands sloping around him wrapped better than the curling of smoke and her straightened spine laying the pressure of her breasts on him had a better heat than the whiskey.

"How fast can you really get this thing going, Scotty?"

"No goddamn compass for bad ideas." He shied back the repetition as her chin rubbed into his shoulder and her palms spanned against him, his hand rubbing the back of hers before he started the bike.

"That explains you." The rove of her voice on his ear had just enough presence to carry over the rumble and he let himself laugh as she leaned even tighter into him.


	23. Chapter 23

For as tired as his words and features and movements had proven him to be, his hands on her were awfully insistent and prying. The big picture problem was that she had absolutely no other problem with it. She blatantly enjoyed the fact that he pushed her into her own front door by the hips as she tried to unlock it, one of his palms against the surface of it and his face so buried into her hair and the back of her neck that the groaned noise he sounded off rattled on her spinal chord. She instantly gave up on trying at the lock any more and handed back the keys to his sure hand, palm catching on his jaw so that she could turn his head into kissing her. Letting his tongue lay along hers before he sucked against it lighter than expected. His other hand came off the door long enough to tangle up her hair and pull her lips off his, his eyes sparked up as he looked over her face in hazy humor.

"Jesus. Stay still, woman."

Like she'd planned on going anywhere. Sweet Jesus Christ.

"Would you just unlock the damn door?" she shook darkened eyes at him, hissing the words into the way he was rubbing his leather covered fingers against her scalp.

The smile he laid on her was fleetingly perfect in its damaged aching and she was unexplainably surprised when he just pushed his wrist forward, the door already unlatched.

"How'd you do that?" she rolled her eyes. "You're - "

"Trust me." His hand tightened up in her hair, "I don't have a problem finding my way past your door, Jarry."

"Obviously." She whispered as she let her glance lift over his face. "That's sorta terrifying. And… attractive."

"Y'do seem to have a weak spot for questionable men." He teased the words onto her cheek with brushing lips, scruff and beard already rushing her skin up red.

"You're really not gonna let the Dulane thing go, are you?" she turned tightly into his chest, fingers wrapping against leather as she stepped backwards, tugging him past the doorframe so that he could clip it closed with a shunting palm.

Chibs cocked off a quickly annoyed glance as she laid back into the front of him, his back pressing the door lazily as he dropped a hand to hit the lock. "Don't want to. Don't like 'im."

Ally looked over him cockily as she fingered against his beads. "Jealousy, threatening people, public displays… what the hell has changed, Telford?"

"Everything." He sadly sighed off as his hands lifted against her face, stepping her forcibly backwards while keeping her head up, lining his steps into hers to keep her balanced. "And it's all gone to shit."

The accented roughness of his words matched how hard he broke down over her, even the gloves he was still wearing twisting hard into her hair as he veered her flat into the hallway wall, her shoulders bracing into it just before he caught her head tight forward from bouncing against the dry wall. She moved to match him and the sudden jerk of leather on her wrists troubled up her lungs as he braced her hands back hard into the wall.

"Stop, Ally." He ground over her as he forcefully shunted her hands still, crowning a glance over her lifted jaw as he let his fingers scale down her forearms and against the ride of her belt. "Stop makin' everything a pissin' contest."

She angled her eyes down the way he sidled into one side of her, his left arm warmly brooking the wall so that his head was angled closer to hers, a hushing sound off his throat as he traced his lips against her cheek and dragged her pants open enough to slope his hand between her legs. She could feel him smile against her cheek as she dropped her head hard back into the wall in lusted resignation.

"Take the victory, Lieutenant." His nose was burying in her hair again. "Tonight, you win."

He hadn't taken the damn gloves off.

And the tight smooth warmth broke any strength she may have had to fight him.

"Bullshit." She breathlessly dropped one hand off the wall to catch him up tighter, digging him closer as her other hand curled into his closer shoulder, leaning into the rub of his fingers sliding wetness. "You're a son of a bitch."

"That's no way to be grateful," He took a kiss off her lips as he drove his thumb harder against her clit, fingers suddenly rougher against and inside her as he pinned her tightly into the wall and nipped on her bottom lip. "to the man who covered your pretty little ass today. Take the fucking win, Althea."

He waited out the widened glance she shot him, concern clouding the mingled colors of her eyes into a darkened surprise. Chibs shut his eyes against the swing of sympathetic appreciation that layered her features and dropped his head to the side of hers, leaning into her as he worked his fingers faster. He groaned into the sweetly softened kisses she pressed along his jaw, her hands gentling as her breathing ratcheted faster.

"What did you do, Filip?" her hands clenched again, spine arching as he drove a finger into her. "What - "

"It doesn't matter." The dragging whisper was rubbed into her temple. "It's done, love."

He hadn't realized that the simple slide of her arms against his shoulders as she laid a sighing moan against his jaw was really all he'd been looking for since he'd driven the bottle to the wall.

* * *

"It's gonna be quiet a bit. Gotta be."

"I know." She nodded her head back on his shoulder, laying comfortably back into the way they'd landed onto her living room couch, her pants still loose on her hips and her eyes suddenly stinging tired.

"Jackson's been edgy on everything. It's bleedin' onto this." Chibs traced her hair back, smirking into the way she leaned forward enough to tug the foot he'd landed on the cushions up, shoulders drawing heat away from him as she sat up enough to tug the boot off and drop it to the floor before relaxing back again. The other boot still left on the foot that was settled to the floor.

"Not on my furniture." She slapped against the inside of his knee before curling onto her side, leaning into the spread of his chest so that he had to tip his head.

"Y'hear me?" He sharpened over her as he hooked the other boot heel to the bottom frame of the couch and levered it off.

"I heard you, Filip." Ally lifted up, rubbing her shoulder farther down into his chest so that she could curl inward, tagging his arm down so that she could land her jaw along the tensed muscle. "What do you want me to say? This is how it works, right?"

He was silent in the echo of her blatant reality.

"Does he really understand how much you love him?" Her words hedged on a sort of petty jealousy that both prickled his spine cautious and flushed a little pride on his skin as he looked down. "Really?"

"He knows." He angled over her, lacing his words up straight and neat. "In his way."

He laid his head into her hair and the silence of her non response, knowing that the quiet was better than any further conversation on the matter.


	24. Chapter 24

It wasn't often that she was awake and letting space in the bed cool before he'd already drawn from it. He'd slid away from her more often than the reverse but he was still half hazed in sleep, eyes stinging up as he tugged his pants along his hips and followed the sounds of her in the kitchen.

He found her frowning adorably in just his t-shirt and a pair of bright white socks, her cell phone pressed to her ear by the lift of her shoulder as she blearily tried to pull apart coffee filters. He quirked an amused glance over how difficult it seemed to be as she rubbed them between her thumb and forefinger, blowing off annoyance as he reached to tug them away from her. Chibs broke a kiss against her temple as he leaned to her side and stuck one of them into the basket and handed the rest of them back. He turned another amused glance over the way she was pressing up on socked toes so that she could ride against the high counter, levering her weight back so that she didn't have to necessarily hold herself up yet. The filters already dumped forgotten to the counter as she groaned into the phone.

"Y'know what else you can do for me?" she muttered sleepily to the side as she continued to listen to her voicemail, her fingers idly looping against the back of his belt and tugging playfully as he started dumping coffee into the filter. "Have Munson check in with his PO. Stockton Corrections is three miles up my ass and I can't keep shrugging them off."

She didn't notice the pause in his hand at first, didn't catch the way he set the cannister of grounds softly to the counter and stalled up. The catching in his shoulders as he palmed along the counter with both hands and pressed his upper body forward on a sighed sway. She didn't notice any of it until she hung up the phone and rattled it onto the counter, fingers still teasing on him as she turned into his side.

She did, however, notice the brash biting down of his jaw as he stared over the coffee pot unblinking.

"What?" her voice was an intentionally cautious venture.

"He won't be callin' anyone, Althea." He recovered carefully but quietly, hands moving once again so that he could jam the basket into the coffee maker, still completely avoiding her glance.

She swallowed the instantaneous reaction, tasting the sickened swill of it in her throat as her fingers reflexively curled tight onto his belt, fisting around it as she leaned into the stillness of him, "When?"

"Doesn't matter." The defensive grit of his voice crackled a little.

"When?" she repeated into the bare skin of his arm, her hand so tightly clutched against him that her forearm flicked a tensing wince.

"Bit ago." It was the only answer she was getting and she knew it by the way he lifted his jaw in assertion.

"I'm sorry." She offered up clean sincerity, letting her fingers fall from him as he blinked her a pained acknowledgment and nodded, already shifting away from her.

"I'm gonna shower." He let off softly, avoiding a look back into her sympathy. "Need to wake up, darlin'."

* * *

"I could have helped you." The long curling of her body into the hallway bathroom's doorframe seemed surprisingly vulnerable and there was no teasing in her tone, just forthright surety. "If you'd just told me. I could have - "

"It wasn't your goddamn place." He couldn't save himself from snapping at her as he jerked the smaller towel off the rack and scrubbed it against his face, wiping the dampness off his jaw before tossing it to the front of the sink. "It was ours."

Her eyes scattered over the way he turned his hands onto the sink, back stretching a tight line as his toweled hips flared back. She thought for a moment he would actually let the tension that was thrumming his arms flare into breaking something but he just gripped long fingers around the ceramic before stretching back up straight, avoiding his own reflection.

"I'm not talkin' about this." His jaw angled slowly toward her, an apology raking his tone just before it hardened. "We're not havin' this discussion."

"How many discussions are we not going to have before you disappear again?" The twist in her voice dropped coolly despondent before she leaned off the frame, "Maybe we can schedule some non-discussions for the next time you decide to come around."

He banked her a sharpened up glare, just staring her down in a visceral quiet.

"Yeah. More silence." She nodded as she turned, already heading toward her bedroom on strongly muscled steps. "That'll help."

"I need my shirt, Ally." He snapped after her as his palm slapped down onto the sink.

"Good fucking luck getting it." The responding slap of her door closing brought his shoulders down slagged after the arched crack of her voice.

"And my fucking cut." He sighed his head forward while letting his jaw drop, not doubting that she'd locked the bedroom door on him as he finally looked into his reflection in the mirror. "She's bloody insane."

* * *

She'd let him knock his knuckles into the door a solid minute before finally swinging it open. He lifted his head from his hand as it parted, his arm angled into the frame and lungs blowing out a breath into the way she lifted leather directly into his chest in an otherwise blaring silence. His opposite hand caught into it as he cocked a glance over the way she was still wearing his t-shirt, running his tongue along his teeth in a sort of pride that she was still holding onto a little bit of vitriol. She was right insane with fury sometimes. And it looked riotously pretty on her. Made his lungs strangle.

"Y'done now, love?" He asked quietly and tried not to grin into the flashing pale of anger that lightened her features. "Or do I have to take it off you?"

"Don't you touch me." She threatened into him before turning and snagging the button down from the mattress.

He tested in his head how serious she'd been about it. Didn't matter much, really.

He wanted to touch her. And she wasn't generally one to stop him.

She was tense muscle and scrapping hands as he reached for her, but all warm laughter and lithe leaning touches by the time he'd gotten the shirt off her.

"Quiet for awhile." Ally agreed from the kiss he was drawing away from, dragging the body warmed cotton of his t-shirt over his head and shoulders before her hands finished off the movement.

Chibs angled her a smile as he lifted the button down back up and slung it on slowly, shoulders lowering relaxed as she took over buttoning it. "Y'know how to find me if you need me."

Her nod was made of saddened acceptance as she curled into him for a shade of warmth, shoulders tensing on a chill. "I do."

His palms scrubbed heat against her arms before he stepped backwards, catching up his cut from the bed as he let his eyes travel the naked length of her. "Y'can keep the shirt next time."

She pouted him a disbelieving frown, "Liar."


	25. Chapter 25

"Thanks for the love note you left me, sweetheart." There was a twisting of intentional irony in Tig's voice as he caught the door open for the other man, the two of them meeting along the sunshined sidewalk.

Chibs gave him a sharpened up glance of confusion from behind his sunglasses, keeping them on even as he stepped into the ice cream shop. "What?"

"Had Rat clean it up before Jax saw it."

"Think I gave a shit if Jackie saw it?" the Scot tossed off as he stepped full into the counter, sharpening a whistle toward Montez and patting the counter. "Brown bottle."

"It's ten in the morning." Montez murmured in surprised reply.

"Oi." Chibs leaned into the counter, elbowing into it as his gloved palm slapped a bit harder. "I don't give a shit, Midget."

"I knew you'd end up there, man. You just can't help yourself." Tig caught up from behind him with a tint of jaded humor, shifting into the stool beside him so that he could lean into the way the other man set an open beer onto the counter, his arms back as his shoulders laxed.

"And where'd you sleep last night?" Telford took up the bottle after dragging his sunglasses off to the counter, pointing at Trager as he curled the rest of his fingers about the glass neck, "I don't need details. It was rhetorical."

"That and this are so far from being the same thing, Chibby." Tig was lazing his upper body even farther back on the counter. "Complete different time zones."

"And m'point was that I don't comment even though I've plenty say." Telford struck sharply between them, his hand curling hard and tight around the bottle. "Back off it, Tigger."

"A'ight." Trager's smile was wide but didn't reach the bright turn of his eyes or draw the sudden flux of emotions from them. "You got it, VP."

He pulled a swill off the bottle with a darkening glance and shook his head slowly into the knowing way his friend was watching him, "Where's Jackson?"

"Upstairs."

He turned his shoulders broadly into the way both men were watching him, "Time to go to work, boys. Shake ass."

"Chibs."

The soft pulling of his brother's voice stalled him by the stairs and he swayed his shoulders back around, the beer close to his lips as he caught Trager's eyes. "What?"

"She got ya drinkin' before noon?" Trager teased humor back between them with a wry grin. "That's bad juju, brother."

"She lets me sleep in. You're the one makin' me drink." He aimed the bottle between the both them, a smirk flicking in his jaw as he caught the way Trager was grinning. "Get your asses to Church."

* * *

She hadn't seen him in over two days, and hadn't been the least surprised by the fact. At the very least she'd gotten more work done in forty eight hours than a near week's overtime. It had kept her pointed on the little things that may have slackened off a bit. The menial distractions were enough to balance the fact that he never did once give her a tether to let her know that he was still breathing.

At least until he throttled the engine a half a block away from her, echoing the rumble of the Harley back and forth between Main Street buildings.

"Think someone's tryin' to get your attention, LT." Carreira was giving her a crooked smirk, amusement making his face seem suddenly very young.

"Thank you, Deputy Obvious." She dipped her sunglasses half down her nose as she cocked him a sardonic glance. "I'm busy."

"I'll take her statement." He nodded to her with a lifted jaw, waving toward the woman that was waiting on the sidewalk. "I got it."

"You're not helping." Ally threw softly in his direction as the bike growled off behind her again, "Jesus Christ."

"Seems important." The younger man jerked his jaw behind her. "I got it. I can hang her back a few minutes and wait."

"What?" Ally cast in his direction, "Don't wanna join in?"

Her deputy just gave her a brash and humored grin before lifting his hands with a shake of the head, letting his ass drop back against the hood of the patrol car. "Leather's not my kink, Lieutenant."

She waved between the two of them brashly before turning her steps toward Telford, shaking her head at him slowly as he cut the engine on the bike and the member angled behind him did the same. It took her only a moment to recognize the crazed up crooked grin Trager was giving her from behind the way Chibs was leaning his arms into handles.

"You boys sure do know how to make a girl feel special." Her hands laid against her gun belt as she cocked her head, steps angling closer as her voice carried.

"Missed you too, AJ." Tig tossed back in humor, kissing at her playfully.

"It's true." Chibs nodded as he tucked a cigarette between his lips and lit it, sucking down the swallow of smoke as he motioned to the man behind him. "He's been prattlin' on about you for days. Won't shut the hell up."

"He's broody." Tig explained with a shrug, jaw shying an angle as his eyes winced a little playfully. "Drinkin' too much. Not talking. Sorta whiny."

"Shut your fuckin' mouth." Chibs exhaled the smoke on an angle before laying a smile back in her direction.

"Been jumpy too. Might be a heart condition." Trager inserted in giddied humor.

"What do you need?" she rolled the question over him on a sigh, letting her glance drift the stretch of his arms for a moment.

"Nothin'." He shrugged at her on a smirk. "Not in a ditch yet."

"You could have just called." She started back stepping slowly away from him. "Any other time you don't have a problem making demands via telephone."

Trager's laugh was a warm echoing over them.

"Didn't I tell ya?" Chibs tossed back at him as he lifted the cigarette. "I make an effort, I get sassed."

"Ride safely, boys." She started turning away from their teasing and her spine caught startled up into the sharp whistle that came off him.

"Don't you whistle at me, Telford." Her voice cut across the asphalt before she turned back at them. "I am not your dog."

"Miss ya, Cu Sith." He winked at her on a softened smile.

Tig let a sweetened and sighed noise off his chest as he leaned forward on his bike, "I am so into this shit, guys. It's like Nora Ephron on crank."

"Shut up, Trager." She shook her head at him blearily before banking her eyes back in the Scot's direction, brow arched in scrutiny. "What do you need?"

"May've left a couple very angry Aryans tied to some pipe." He dropped the last of the cigarette and stubbed against it with the toe of his boot. "Didn't wanna starve 'em out."

"Cuz that'd be ironic, see?" Tig bounced amusedly between them.

She snorted into the comment and nodded slowly. "I'll pick them up when I have a few minutes free."

"Pine and Whitmore." He gave her an unavoidable grin, "Gray house. No rush, love. They're just hangin' about."

Another round of Trager's laughter fed into Chibs' widening grin as they cast humored glances between themselves. "Oh, that was good. Nicely done."

"Good bye, boys." She sighed off and lifted a hand as she started to step away from them once again.

"I'll call." He shrugged the offer up after her compliantly. "Yeah?"

Ally just lifted her hand as she kept moving, "I'll believe it when the phone rings, Scotty."

* * *

"Jesus Christ." Unser's voice rattled along the thin walls of the trailer, his hands bracing a balance where he could as he glared over the way the younger man was relaxed onto the cushions of the small couch. "Giving me a goddamn heart attack would only solve a couple of your problems, Scotty."

Chibs just panned him an intentionally withered glance. "Don't call me that."

The older man perked him a half amused glance at the annoyance that was breathing still between them. "Right. That's a pet name."

"I'm not here to dick around, Wayne." The accented flow of the words was slowly relaxing as Telford leaned forward, his shoulders looming large in the small space as he dug his elbows onto his knees. "Truce. Peace for five minutes, yeah?"

"Peace?" Unser snorted a laugh before tugging open the small fridge, searching over the contents before cautiously pulling two beers from it and lifting them in questioning, "You boys all tend to say word that like it's just a dinner order that you're not all that enthused about."

The Scot just swallowed the commentary and lifted a hand in acceptance of the bottle, twisting the top but not taking a drink as he watched the former Chief lean back into the marginal counter top. He seemed suddenly frail and a cage of hopeless desperation and unrealized sympathy cradled into the Vice President's lungs as he watched the other man swallow down half the bottle in a pulling gulp. Chibs sipped against his own beer before setting is aside, the taste of it a sudden bitter warning to his senses.

"I need help." He offered the weakness into the small space of the trailer, knowing the disgust of admittance in his voice was the loudest sound within the cramping walls.

"I'm not qualified." Unser's eyes didn't meet his, and at first he assumed that the shunting of those three words would be the only response. "You have two minutes before I shoot you."

Chibs snorted an unintentional laugh of disbelief into the room, laying his shoulders back as a sort of hysterical amusement broke between them. Unser gave him a helpless shrug of resignation as their eyes finally passed against each other between breathy laughter, the older man finishing off his bottle with a couple smaller swallows than the first. The Scot reached for the beer he'd started and offered it up as another treatise. They held a tenuous silence for a moment before the retired cop shrugged his shoulders up, the second bottle carrying between them.

"What?"

"Althea." He softly savored the fact that he could let his voice over her name in this place, his upturned glance true in his concern.

"I've been trying to help." Unser's eyes pinched thin. "You're both too stupid or stubborn to actually listen. I'm tired of getting bitch slapped by the both of you, Chibs. I'm just gonna be Switzerland."

"Not help in losin' her, Wayne." Chibs broke the words tightly between them. "Help in keepin'."

"Then you're an idiot." The older man's face suddenly soured and went ashen. "And somebody's gonna end up hurt."

"Wayne - "

"And I don't mean crying in their beer, hurt. I mean dead." The sudden deafening snap of the other man's words hummed the trailer silent.

"She's not Tara." He slowly let the words into the thick and sweaty air that hung between them, letting his eyes focus on a non-existent point before him. "There was no reason to lay that on her."

"Bullshit." Unser sharpened over him with a sudden authority that made his tired looking limbs rebound into tightness. "You're setting her up to be one of two things, Scotty - "

"Wayne."

"She's gonna end up scraping through this but come out mean. Not a scrap of humanity left in her." The bottle clapped down against the thin counter to echo the inference, "Or she's your Tara. And we all know how that ends."

"That's why I'm sitting in the middle of your fuckin' stink, trying to…" the younger of the two's jaw suddenly jerked higher as he let the words fade off, his head turning so that he could pass a scattered glance out into TM's lot. "I'm not walkin' away."

"Why?" Unser finally softened his tone again, his arms crossing over his chest in a cautious shift. "Is this the club or is it you?"

"I'm not walkin' away from her." It was the only answer he was willing to lay between them, glance still pointed toward the garage.

"You're never gonna put her before that club." Wayne murmured slowly over the other man's tensioned and tuned up frame. "How long you think that's gonna last on a woman like her?"

"If she goes, she goes." Chibs admitted in sullen despondency. "That's her choice."

"You can't walk away." Wayne surmised quietly. "It's not that you won't. It's that you can't."

"I need help." The Scot's eyes were ferociously dark as he finally caught back into the other man's glance. "And I'm here askin' for it. You can play at making prophecies all y'like, Chief, but that's reality."

"Jax know how far this goes?" Wayne asked as he shifted wearily.

Chibs swayed his head to an angle, nodding slowly. "Mostly. To a point."

"And?"

"And I'm here," the younger of the two sharpened, "talkin' to you."

"Yeah." Unser sighed into it as he finally reached for the beer again. "I see that."


	26. Chapter 26

She'd buried herself as thickly into the information as she dared to go, wanting as many details as she could scrap into her hands, but not necessarily wanting all the answers when it came to how and when and where the Sons managed to puzzle-piece-fit themselves into everything shit-show-down that managed to land in Charming. And they were out-reaching themselves too – stretching hands into Stockton, Morada. Other names of other places suddenly breaking on her ears as more bikes lined up on streets – Indian Hills, Tacoma. She'd always had a bit of a thing for men on bikes, but it was getting surreally ridiculous. The town was starting to look like a road rally on steroids.

And the fact that they were so tightly entangled into faulted webs that radiated far out of her zone - it had her stomach twisting.

"Lieutenant?" Dulane's voice was a softly wending intrusion, his tone a tacit pull on her as she turned away from the way she'd pinned piles of papers and photos onto the board in the conference room. "Couple of things?"

"Sure." She nodded with a distracted and back tracking glance to the board. "Go ahead."

"Narco got a hit on the Morada meth distribution deal. I'm gonna head out there."

She nodded slowly, grazing her glance over the papers, "Take a second car. Anderson and Grady should be freed up."

"Thought you might wanna ride along." At the culled warmth of his voice she turned a glance back, noting the way he was breaking an awkwardly tight smile in her direction. "Could be good PR. Take the heat off some other problems."

"I'm fine right here, Nick." She banked him a half smile, not letting it really last as she intentionally studied his eyes. "Head in the game."

At least he was clean. And if there was a buzz on him, it wasn't strong enough to ride his eyes. She'd let off on leaning too much over him, giving him a little space to ease the scattering of his light eyes every time she moved into the room. He still took liberally blatant glances of her when he didn't think she was paying attention. Still had a quiet on him that made her cautious and curious. But he'd been too quiet in general, gently calm in a way that almost made her more nervous. Either he was just riding the up-swing before dipping back into a binge, or he thought he had something over on her. Which, in all reality, he did. But she wasn't going to let him see that it was a concern to her.

"You can have the PR." She rushed the faked smile in his direction again. "Yeah? You need a win these days. It'll look good to Patterson."

"Yes, ma'am." The sudden smile he angled her way was too feral to be genial and he had to have realized it the same time she did, turning his head out toward the bull pen with purposefully blanked features. "You have a visitor. Unser wants a chat."

"That's fine." She softened toward him with a nod, "Call into the Morada sub-station, let them know I put you on point."

He nodded with a curbed smile and tightened eyes, "Got it. Thanks."

"Send Wayne in here." She turned back toward the board, eyes cresting over it as she let her tongue run her teeth.

* * *

"That boy's too eager."

Ally cocked a surreptitious glance into the way Unser latched the door to the conference room closed, his head turning so he could catch her glance as he caught up the lock and latched it. Her spine straightened as she turned fully from the board on the wall and pinched him a look of questioning, glancing from the lock to his tired face.

"That he is." She nodded slowly in darkening agreement. "What's it matter to you?"

"This room clean?" he circled a finger in the air. "Or should I have brought my Etch-a Sketch?"

"Camera." She was suddenly very aware of the implied questioning in his eyes. "No sound. What's going on, Wayne?"

"I'm a sucker." He shrugged his shoulders up before tugging out one of the chairs at the spacious table, collapsing his body into it as he quickly scrubbed a hand against his bald head. "Got a soft spot for the sweet things in life."

"What the hell, Wayne?" frustrated annoyance shook her head as she let her arms brace over her torso. "Are you high right now? Seriously?"

"Little." He slumped farther back in the chair, "Little buzzed. May have shared a round or two with a mutual acquaintance."

"We have a large number of mutual acquaintances these days, Unser." She finally leaned her hands into the table, catching the way he was distractedly searching the board behind her, a smirk tipping his lips as his head dipped to angle around her.

"Starting to lay it together, aren't you?" he asked quietly, as he carried his glance over the photos and maps and reports and notes she'd tacked up.

"Not sure I want to, really. Not necessarily trying all that hard." She admitted softly, shoulders loosening as she carried a glance back up to him. "I'm assuming Telford got you drunk."

"I'm not drunk. And he didn't drink all that much, actually." Unser gave her a swift look of surprised realization. "He's truly goddamn calculating when he needs to be. Never expected it to come outta that wild little shit."

"How long have you known each other?" she snorted the question in humor as she pulled the nearest chair and leaned into it. "Has to be over a decade."

The older man slowly nodded, lips pursed tightly before he inhaled, "He was angry IRA. Completely spun out and raging when he first got here. Always looking for fights. We've never really been drinking buddies, Ally."

"Things change, huh?" she let off a breathy laugh.

"Not really." There was a sudden sobering to his face. "He still looks for fights."

She cautioned a glance over him, opening her mouth to ask but stalled into the way he just lifted a hand and shook it off. Ally breathed in slowly, watching him wince a slight aching pain into the way he shifted sidelong into the chair, tugging a folded piece of paper from his pocket and landing it onto the table. He stared at it despondently a moment before cocking his head back up at her, eyes suddenly very focused and clear in comparison to a few moments before.

"I apologize for the crack about you becoming Gemma." He admitted softly.

"Accepted." She murmured, glance still focused on the paper. "What is that?"

"Despite the fact that I haven't changed my mind, I may have agreed to help… alleviate the stress of this particular situation." He slid the paper in her direction, fingers rising off it before he sank his shoulders back into a lounging position.

"Passing love notes in class?" she cocked smugly at him before taking the paper into her fingers, opening it slowly to just find the scrawl of Telford's signature on an otherwise pristinely clean space. "This tells me nothing."

"Liar." He smiled indulgently. "Tells you everything. He's setting up a safety net. He's giving you an exit strategy so that any given time, should he have to, he can get you out. And that paper is his way of telling you that I'm being perfectly serious. This is legitimate."

"And you're just suddenly okay with this?" she shook her head in a way that said she obviously didn't believe in an inch of his genial manner.

"Getting you out rather than getting you dead?" the sudden pale of his face made his sincerity obvious. "Yeah, I'm pretty good with it, Jarry. I'm copacetic."

She hadn't really fully appreciated the weight of guilt he was probably still shouldering after Knowles' death until that moment. Hadn't really lingered a thought over the time this man had spent with these unstable people, in these rampantly and ridiculously insane surroundings. Years… he'd watched it go by for years. Decades. And reality said that she very well should have listened to him the very first time he'd warned her away from the situation. Regardless of whether she'd already been damn emotionally invested. His sincerity, and the very fact that he was twisting this offer before her, it laid out how serious he was about he entire situation, clearly crystalline between them.

"You realize how ridiculous this sounds?" her fingers pressed the folds a little flatter, the sound hashing after her words. "I'm not helpless and this is not Dodge City. I want an exit strategy? I call Patterson. Take my punishment but still get out of Charming."

"Could you?" Unser asked quietly, his watery eyes following the tightened up pulling on her shoulders. "Tell Patterson everything and just walk away? Because he can't."

She winced a shaded look at him, voice grazing quiet, "Don't fuck with my head, Wayne."

"I'm bein' perfectly serious, Ally." He nodded.

She let her lungs collapse as she exhaled slowly, dragging the pen from the paperwork she'd left dumped forgotten to the side. She pulled the paper slowly closer and signed off on it with a quick hand, catching the way Unser was smirking over her in shaded humor as he let his jaw ride against a closed fist. He was elbowing the table as he watched her interestedly, eyes riding the way she slid the paper back.

Her hand loosed the pen onto it tiredly, "You tell him that signature is null and void if I don't physically speak to him in the next twenty four hours. Understood?"

"Understood."

"This is getting ridiculous." She murmured slowly as she slacked back in the chair.

Wayne just gave her a shied glance, "Nothing in this town is black and white, Lieutenant. It's a whole lotta gray matter. Get my meaning?"

"And how do either of us know you're not going to screw us if it ever comes down to the point where we need you, Wayne?"

He cocked her a look of surety, "You don't. But it's me or nothin'."

"That's terrifying."

* * *

He perked a surprised glance into the way a cup of coffee settled gently to the table at the corner of one of the books he was leaned over, the hand that had left it gentling on his shoulder as Lyla's familiar perfume crowned over him. She brushed her hand off him before tugging at the chair to his side, angling into it with tightly tucked shoulders, arms wrapping her body.

"Thanks." he nodded as he lifted the cup, sipping on it as he perked a glance over his glasses. "You all right, darlin'?"

"You know I'm not stupid, right?" she tipped her head to the side, the fair blonde and light of her a contrast to the shaded darkness that was layering the room. The light fading from the windows and causing him to squint in a way he hadn't noticed until she'd interrupted him.

"In regards to what?" he shied back from the accounting, head angling as he kept the cup tucked up near his chest.

"I hear things. I see things. I don't comment." She shrugged it off as her hand stretched toward the book he'd been pouring over, her head angling as she studied it. "Not my place."

"You - "

"Doesn't mean I'm naïve." The blonde told him softly before reaching for the pen that had been settled to the table, crossing out some of the numbers that had been etched into the margins, "You need the account statements to reconcile this, ya know?"

"If I knew where they were, I wouldn't still be sittin' here." Chibs snorted off a shrug as he glared over his glasses at the book, taking another swallow of strong coffee.

"No," she gave him a sideways smile that wended sad, "you'd be having dinner with a woman who obviously cares about you despite everything else."

"It's not like you and Ope, darlin'." He hushed over the way she was pulling the rest of the paperwork closer, drawing it away from him so that she could scrutinize it. "It's - "

"It's a biker and a porn star. A biker and a doctor." She murmured as she blindly reached for the coffee she'd given him, tucking the chair closer to the table as she sipped at it and continued reading over the numbers, "A biker and a tranny. A biker and a cop. We make shit work, Chibs. Families do."

"Sweetheart - "

"I can get the statements. I have the account numbers." She nodded as she flipped a couple pages, glancing briefly sideways at him. "How about you get some dinner?"

"What about the kids?" he asked quietly, bending leniency into the possibility, a folded piece of paper burning heat in his pocket. "Y'can't sit here all night."

"I'll take it home. Jax is fine with me working on Red Woody's stuff at the house. I doubt he'd have an issue." She shrugged off. "He's at home anyhow. Wanted to spend time with the boys."

Chibs stretched from the chair slowly, both his hands bracing onto her thin shoulders as he bent a kiss to the top of her head, "I'm sorry I couldn't keep him here for you."

"Had to happen." Her voice was a faded whisper over the coffee cup. "We don't get guarantees, right?"

"No, we don't." he squeezed against her shoulders.

She nodded as she leaned forward from his touch, shrugging off the sympathy as she braced against the table and over the book, "So stop being so damn stubborn and go have dinner with a beautiful woman, Chibs. Christ. You're allowed to be happy sometimes."

He smiled into the shunting quality of her voice, "Yes ma'am."


	27. Chapter 27

He'd parked his bike out front this time, an obvious proprietary marker and also a subtle warning to her that he was already inside. She'd still taken her time entering the house, settling into the minutely awkward but plain comfort of knowing he was there, the intrinsic feeling that something had changed the space of the house. He'd left his gloves on the table, his keys hung. And she wasn't completely sure how she felt about it – except that it brandished a warmth over her skin that held even after she'd unlaced and kicked her boots into the hall.

"Wow." Her hand lifted to reflexively drag the tie from her hair as he studied her steps from her living room chair, knowing that if she didn't he'd have his fingers prying on it soon enough. "You still have eighteen hours on the clock, Telford. Sure you don't wanna leave and come back again?"

His eyes tripped over the downward fall of her hair against dark fabric as his head cocked into his hand, shoulders laxing as he let her own the full wattage of the smile he aimed at her. "C'mere."

She dropped her bag to the coffee table tiredly, leaning her hands forward into the way he offered his palms up into her stretching movement. His hips jacked lower into the plush chair as she straddled his lap and stretched into him on a weary groaning, spine loosening into the way he was wrapping her hands up behind her and locking them there. Ally let her hair tip forward over his face as she plied long and dragging kisses against him, feeling the tensing of his fingers around hers as his jaw lifted into the languid lay of her tongue along his. The curve of her smile was what he tasted as she pulled a fraction back from him, eyes meeting his in the darkened living room.

"We really need to talk."

"Talk then." He nodded, his voice chipping up a contrary note.

"We, not me." Ally tipped her head in an unguarded accusation.

Chibs smirked into her demand and nodded slowly, "I know."

"Lemme change first." She nodded another kiss against him, laughing breath into it as she tried to pull from his hands and just got dragged down tighter and closer into his lap, his arms unforgiving as they closed on her.

"Y'don't have to." He shook the words off, letting his eyes slope her shoulders and down, raking over the darkness of the uniform.

He considered it quietly, letting his gaze wander down the front of her as he searched the patches and badge and the markings she wore. They weren't necessarily all that different from the layered trappings on his cut. Not when removed from her world and placed directly into his lap. Just signals and signs of where she stood and the ranking of her life. Just the things that marked how similar yet separate they were.

Ally just pressed her forehead into his, "I'm tired and I wanna change."

"Hungry?" he loosened up on her fingers, guiding his palms along her hips as she untangled from him.

"Sorta."

"Chucky's mac and cheese in the kitchen." He cast after her, angling in the chair so that he could watch her as she walked away from him, a smile lifted in her direction as she turned an appreciative glance over him. "Probably still warm."

"An IRA biker gun runner brought me macaroni and cheese made by a guy who had his fingers cut off by the Chinese mafia?" she was already drawing off the uniform shirt as he watched her movements, "Suddenly my life is beyond surreal."

"Former IRA." His scars delved into flush dimples, "And consider yourself blessed for not knowin' why they cut 'em off."

"Former?" she cocked disbelief at him. "Should I know why?"

He cheekily tisked a noise against his cheek, "Y'really don't wanna."

* * *

She couldn't keep herself from smiling into the fact that there was a black button down shirt laying spread across her bed, her fingertips lingering on it softly as his steps tracked into the room behind her. The heady smell of food was a welcoming warmth as he moved by her, a plastic container set to the bedside table as he clattered the forks beside it and before she'd really drawn her fingers completely off fabric he was leaned along her back.

Ally lifted her hands from the way his arms curled around her to draw fabric from her skin slowly, touches slow and intentionally gentled. "That's the first shirt I took off you, Telford."

"I know that." He tipped against her shoulder, already sloping her pants off her hips with movements that weren't sexual, but intentionally careful in design.

He was being so intentionally softened.

It nerved her up. Made her question his movements and motives.

Made her question everything in a sudden lack of oxygen to her lungs.

"Filip, you're freaking me out." She angled her jaw into the way he was riding his chin along her shoulder.

The warm chuckle he angled into her ear didn't do much to soothe the jagged edges of her nerves but she let him strip her completely anyhow, her hands curled open and waiting as he lifted the shirt from the bed and slid into the spot it had been in, handing it up as he licked along his lips and brushed his hands on the outsides of her thighs. There was enough of a chill on his rings that her muscles tightened as she drew the shirt on, only clasping a few buttons as he smiled at her.

"Seriously?" She let a finger lift to ride his quiet lips, the cuff of his shirt widely undone and dark against her pale skin.

"Talk." He nodded once before leaning to her side, reaching for the food he'd brought as the other hand drew her forward by clipping the backs of her knees, angling her back into his lap in a more than practiced manner as he lifted the uncovered container.

Ally shied him a scrutinizing glance, taking the bowl between them as she shifted her legs around him and took the fork he was offering, stabbing at the food. "I'm supposed to believe that Wayne Unser is happy about being an accessory to this?"

"No," he took a bite of his own as he shook his head, chewing before swallowing hard and quick, "he's not thrilled. But it works."

"Has something with Teller changed? Something I need to worry about?" she finally took a forkful into her mouth, sighing into the warm smoothness on her tongue.

Chibs just banked a cocked grin at the groaned noise of appreciation she made as she swallowed, "Not… It's not necessarily Jackie. It's… everything."

"Okay." She sighed off and stabbed at the macaroni and cheese again, lifting the fork between them as she continued. "And should I be worried that the biker population in this town has doubled?"

"Crime's gone down though, yeah?" his face had shaded more serious, an obvious conflict darkening his eyes.

Ally angled her head in a silent acceptance, a quiet laugh wrinkling her nose as he took the next bite off her fork before she'd been able to lift in past him. He chewed on it silently, hands dragging down against her waist so that he could shift the way she was pressing into him, swallowing down the food and a groan as her spine arched into the movement and pressed her harder into his groin. He flared a sparing look into the way she was smiling down on him.

"Take this." She handed the bowl down into his hand.

"You wanted to talk." He whispered into the way her palms flushed his jaw line, thumbs rising to run from his lips and along his scars, making his eyes thin worriedly.

"I still do." She studied his face harder than usual and it made him flush self conscious as she continued looking over him. "You know the accent kills me, right?"

"I do." He tried to shirk the smile down but she forced his head to stay angled upward, the color of his eyes a shaded guarding as he watched her back. "So talk."

"Unser says you can't walk away from me." She leaned the words tighter over him, a smug curve on her lips that slowly faded off. "Don't lie to me. For once, just…don't."

His jaw flickered under her fingers and the guarding glance stayed in place, regardless of the sudden dropping softness of his voice "Would've done by now, don't y'think? You're a bigger pain in the ass than advertised, Althea."

She shifted tighter into his lap, fingers pinning a fraught pressure on his jaw, "Filip."

"Dead men don't lie." His eyes sparked a bit in the inferred admission he was making, the slackened relaxation if his body against her bed seeming so innocuous and innocent to the heaviness of the statement. "And he's been on God's repo list for years."

The surprise that ravaged her lungs was frozen open, locking the movement of them as he just gave her a tensed nod, one fractional movement that kept her rib cage stopped still. And because he was treading in a repeat pattern of patience, he waited her out, watching the vulnerable ripple of emotions tip new colors into her eyes. The good of golds and greens and browns seemed to outweigh any darkness as she stayed still silent and it finally brought him to a pointed smirk.

"So, y'don't want any more of this?" he lifted the bowl awkwardly, "Because I feel like an idiot."

"I didn't say that." She cocked over him, taking the bowl back with a smug smirk as she bore down tighter into his lap, letting her legs wrap on him possessively. "Don't you dare take my food away, Scotty."

Chibs felt his lips tighten on a smile. "You wanted to talk, remember?"

"I want to eat." She countered as a peace agreement, a smile still riding so warmly on her lips that her eyes coppered up in color. "I want to wear this shirt and I want to eat Chucky's macaroni and cheese."

"He couldn't stop wankin' himself." He shrugged his palms back on the mattress, shoulders lazy as his head dropped back slightly, eyes still focused on her features as she perked him a confused glance. "Lin took his fingers because he had a compulsive dick in hand problem."

"Now you're just making shit up." She glared on him.

Chibs just grinned as his brow lifted, "Am I?"

* * *

She let him win the blind fight when her cell phone pealed off into the darkness, not really reaching all that intently. His hand broke against hers as he kept his mouth cradled into the curve of her throat, sucking a welt into her skin as he drove his hips higher against hers and jerked her fingers back to the bed. A brash growl scraped off her skin as he rode against her bared waist and snagged the phone off the table, squinting into the way it lit up as he searched the brightened screen.

The flare of the blue toned light sharpened the shearing anger that cleaned his face of any of the lusted affection he'd been pouring onto her, "Boy's gonna find a maker, Althea. Even if it isn't his own."

She tugged at his wrist as she angled up, rolling her eyes into the fact that her caller ID had pinged Dulane's cell. "Ignore it."

He cocked a derisive glance into the pleading of her voice. "This ends. You make it clear or I will."

"Ignore it." She repeated into him on a hush as she lifted her hands back against his neck, drawing down against tensed muscles. "He's probably trashed."

"You make it clear," Chibs let the phone drop back to the mattress as his mouth grazed hers, "or I will."

"All right." She nodded a plaintive smile up at him. "Relax, Scotty."

"I'm fine, Lieutenant." He shunted her jaw back up as he aimed his lips to her throat, beard rasping red on her. "He's got a real retardation problem, though."

She couldn't help but laugh into the succinctly droll drop of the words on her skin, her phone still letting off a jangling as she pressed down on his shoulders, head laxing back on a sigh as he aimed lower.


	28. Chapter 28

She whimpered a dragging frustration into the sound of the house phone invading the delightfully comfortable way he'd curled her up from the mattress and into his still denim covered lap, her hands digging on his bared shoulders in frustration. Chibs hissed into the scrape of her nails against his skin as he dropped his forehead hard into her collarbone, letting a rattle of curses litter over her clavicle before he lifted his head.

"He won't be able to dial a phone number by the end of this night." His voice was a thrummed sound of jagged frustration, his fingers drawing damp from the way he'd sloped them between her thighs so that he could balance her shifting.

"I'll handle it, okay?" Ally just pushed into his shoulders, letting his palms grace along her hips as she leaned back onto the mattress and jerkily clipped the hand set from the bedside table with a tone nearly as frustrated as his. "What?"

He watched her throat flex as she swallowed, a full frown crowning over her angled features as she pressed her shoulders back up rapidly. The dip of her hair over the marks he'd left along her throat caught his attention only a moment before she used the heel of her palm to shift against his reaching. Filip cocked a darkly scrutinizing glance over the way she withdrew from him, drawing higher on the mattress and breaking any connection they'd held.

"Bring it in and lock it down." Her voice had a sudden throttle of control that rivaled the tone he traded in during some less than amenable situations and it pinned his focus directly on her face. "Where is he?"

She was already shifting off the bed and he could see the stringent ride of her muscles tightening as she took the phone with her, jerking her uniform pants from the floor rapidly, "I don't give a shit what they're telling you, I want officers covering him. It's not a request, Nick. You're the one with the badge, put yourself in the fucking room."

He angled himself up on the bed, breathing intentionally slowly as he roughly jerked the pants from her gripping hands, catching the fierce darkness in her eyes and nodding support as he stood into her. His hands shifted into drawing the pants onto her as her breathing exhaled sharply into the phone.

"Breathe." He whispered as he stroked the black shirt off one shoulder and down her arm, letting her shift the phone from one hand to the other to finish pulling it from her.

"I'll be there in twenty." She spoke sharply. "Have dispatch do a full recall. Everyone in. Have Grady lock down the scene. Do it quietly."

The sharp way she hung up with no further discussion drew his attention back up but he just watched the flinching of her face.

"Somebody put a bullet in Carreira's chest." Her tone was brooding and flickering on rage. "In the middle of his kitchen, Filip."

His eyes met hers and he caught the flinching of near betrayal that shattered the colors in her eyes into a million fractions of darkness.

"Don't look at me like that." He told her swiftly as she let the phone drop to the bed.

"Eglee?" she sharpened at him before turning, "Now Carreira?"

"We had nothing - "

"Don't lie to me." The snap in her voice ranged high and achingly broken as she pulled on her tank and grabbed the weighed down gun belt from the chair. "Goddamn it, Filip. Dogs don't shit in this town without one of you knowing."

"Ally." The hissed warning of his tone did little to match the indignation of her angry body.

"I don't have time for this." She was already turning on him, maybe in more ways than one. "Lock the door when you leave."

"I didn't do this, Althea. We didn't do this." He caught the way she paused into the scattered honesty in his voice, her hand catching against the doorframe to stall her movements briefly.

She just gave him an already weary look, shoulders loosening as she leaned into the door frame. "Then find out who did."

He nodded a solemn agreement, "Go take care of your boy."

* * *

"He called it in himself. Still conscious when the EMTs landed but he dropped out by the time they got him on the road."

She just nodded a sharpened acceptance of the information, letting Dulane keep up with the speed she was keeping through St Thomas' halls. "They tell you anything?"

"Collapsed lung at least." There was an obviously scattered range of trepidation in the younger man's eyes as she glanced back into his explanation, "He's in surgery, Lieutenant. They're not gonna let you near him."

"I don't give a shit." She shunted back as she continued moving toward the intensive care unit. "Tell me you have officers on the floor?"

"And hospital security's been briefed." His voice hedged lower.

"Which paramedics responded?" Ally asked him as her palm shunted hard into a swinging door, bounding it forward. "They give you anything?"

His voice dropped into sudden apology, "I'm not sure."

"Jesus Christ, Nick." And that's when she left him behind her, unconcerned with the way he plainly stopped and watched her go.

* * *

"Whoa there, Sheriff." The sharp break of a hard masculine voice caught her as soon as she'd passed the door, "You're in the wrong locker room, sweetheart."

Ally dropped a glare into the term and just cocked a glance into the way the man snugged a towel tighter against his hips, his hair still dowsed wet from the showers. "Abrams?"

"Yeah." He nodded tightly into the way she ignored the first rattle of humor he'd attempted, his frame going a little tighter as he lifted his head and called backwards across the room. "Towels on boys. There's a lady present."

"You picked up Carreira?" she relaxed into the swift turn of some kind of professionalism that raked over him, his hand already drawing a t-shirt from inside his locker as she let her shoulder rest a few lockers down. "He say anything to you?"

"Same thing most Catholic boys say when they're spitting up a lungful of blood." His eyes were a dark brown that seemed familiar in their velvet and she instantly pushed back the thought of another pair of brown eyes that could trouble her lungs up. "Mary, Mary, I want Mama."

"You know what I mean." She stiffened into the detached vacancy of emotion in his voice.

He shook his head as he tugged the shirt over his head, an apologetic paleness on his face as he shrugged at her, eyeing her insignia. "I got nothin' for ya, Lieutenant. He wasn't lucid. He was dying."

"Is he?" she asked into a quieted tone, "Am I burying this kid in a few days?"

The sympathetic twist on his features rang up her spine, "Possibly. Probably. Sorry."

She swallowed the thickness in her throat as she nodded and back-stepped toward the door, "Call in if you remember anything?"

"Lieutenant?" he sharpened up after her, a hand wiping water off his forehead. "He had his badge in his hand. Kept trying to show it to Nancy. It's at the nurse's station."

She banked him a confused glance, "Still in unform?"

"Naw." He shook it off as his hand roughed through damp dark hair. "Looked like he came from the gym or something."

"Nancy?" she cocked into questioning.

"Leeds. The other EMT." He shook off. "But she saw everything I saw."

"Did she drive or ride?"

He tipped his head into understanding, "She was in the back with him. But he went unconscious halfway here."

Ally nodded slowly, "She still on duty?"

"We were off an hour ago and she's got two kids.." He offered to her back as she moved away from him quickly. "I sent her home."

* * *

He hadn't locked the door because he hadn't left, and he felt no need to guard against anything that could come through her door at him. This place was a safety that he could both savor but also guard if he needed to do so. He'd already done it once, and in the bending of being her partner in security, he'd made a silent pact in his head that he'd be the hand at the door that stalled any threats. But he hadn't realized he'd even made that promise to himself until she'd left him alone in her bedroom, uncaring that he could search every inch of anything that smelled like her. Just as she'd had no complaints when walking into the house he'd already been sitting in – just leaned into his lap in search of a comfort for a too long day that had now bent still unending.

He'd sat long at the side of her bed, listening to the quiet of her house before the bones in him had been too anxious to stay still any longer. So he'd ended up in her kitchen, pouring whiskey that he didn't actually plan to drink as he leaned into the flat of her table with both hands spread still. The smell of the drink was enough to wave his nerves calmer but not still the jitter that was rioting in his bones. It wasn't something that could be swayed by whiskey or any other numbing. He wasn't exactly sure what was going to stay it still. So he left the glass and headed for his keys.


	29. Chapter 29

He missed Tara the most when he found himself in Jax's house before nine in the morning. He missed the comfort of something homey and feminine, something that spoke of a sort of supreme innocence that fleetingly cancelled out all the negatives in their personal Heaven-to-Hell tallies. The strident smell of coffee, soured formula and half finished laundry, sweetly sugared cereal, and the feeling of a woman in a house that she intrinsically knew belonged to her. The loss of that environment always ached on him and he could very well see the dragging vacuum it wasted on the younger man.

And Wendy's presence in this place wasn't nearly as confident in its owning. She was a visiting perfume that strayed through the rooms but drifted off after a time. She never seemed so sure of her standing and the contradiction of her indecisiveness made it seem like she was just holding space in rooms that she should have braced up as her own. No comparison to Gemma or Tara in her assumption of control in any space.

But, at the very least, she made a wickedly bitter early morning brew.

"Looks serious." Thomas was nubbing on a bottle from her hip as she set the cup before him, his eyes bleary tired and reddened from crying as he looked down.

"Most everything does these days." Chibs let his shoulders relax as he lifted his hands into her shifting, nodding as she leaned the boy down into him.

"Jax is in the shower."

Filip just nodded as he braced the boy into his shoulder, letting the bottle clip his jaw as he used the other hand to lift the cup, "I'll wait. You've things to do. It's fine."

"How serious?" she asked as she moved back toward the counter, her voice far more cautious in asking than it could have been.

"It's not really our problem." He told her succinctly, ending the conversation with a turned jaw into the way Thomas was watching him with widely surreptitious eyes, a canny brightness in them that reminded him of the child's mother. "Is it, beautiful boy?"

The toddler pressed his lips tighter around the bottle and just leaned his head down, suddenly relaxing the weight of his small body into the man's shoulder in a silent acceptance of the warmly accented endearment. The sweetened up baby soap and formula smell of the child was enough to clinch him still, letting his head press back into the way the boy curled on him.

"They adore all of you." She told him softly across the kitchen as she tugged a brightly colored plastic bowl from the cupboard. "You're all big strong men."

He just cocked her a grin into the way Thomas made a sucking noise into the side of his head, the bottle clocking him right in the throat once again, "Boys are always boys, Wendy. They know their kind."

She snorted him a glance of agreement before turning her shoulders on him, already starting breakfast. "Sons are always sons?"

"Somethin' like that."

* * *

"She said anything since?" Jax's jaw lifted into the conversation, a cigarette roiling smoke between them as he turned his head.

"Been a bit busy, I'd think." He responded, letting his legs stretch out from the front steps they were sitting on, boots raggedly scraping the pocked sidewalk cement. "But no. Haven't heard from her since she got the call."

"This isn't on us, Chibs." Jax exhaled hard, head shaking back and forth as he squinted into the sun that was facing another day their way. "This has nothing to do with us."

"She's cagey on Eglee." Telford murmured to the side. "She's pushed up on it before and I've backed her off, but she knows we were deeper in it. And she let it go, Jackie. But another cop getting shot in this town does nothing to help and a whole lot to harm."

"Us or your relationship with her?" Jax suddenly shot sidelong. "Because one's a priority over the other."

"I know that." Chibs struck back tightly, feeling the skin on his throat flush. "And y'know I know that, Jackson."

Jax dug his teeth on his bottom lip as he shook his head away again, "It's gotta be on her end. It's gotta be case related."

"She looked at me like I'd pulled the trigger myself." The twisting in the older man's voice drew the blonde's glance back to the side. "Even though she knew I hadn't. Like I'd broken her trust."

"There a lotta trust in that to begin with?" Jax questioned in a brusque manner.

"In ways." Chibs admitted softly, his hands dropping lax between bent knees as a lack of sleep wore his body into a downward curve. "When both of us let the day go."

"We don't have time to do her job for her, Chibs." The direct cut of the younger man's voice was faintly underscored with apology as he shook his head.

"I'm not askin' to." The older of the two shook it off, his glance driven squintingly forward into the sun, like a personal punishment. "But I'd like to know the answer. Because I don't like the turn of where this particular blood trail could lead."

Jax sucked down another drag from the cigarette as he stared ahead as well, his voice treading into a slow realization. "You're worried that this may actually be on us? Because of you?"

"It's not beyond possible."

"It's not." There was a tripping sadness caught in blue eyes as they turned toward the older man, searching the tightly framed jaw. "You're actually worried."

Chibs just gave him a brief nod, eyes finally turning back to him. "I am."

"We can talk to Barosky. See if he's heard anything." Jax gave in softly, "But if it's a dead end, then it's done. This is her business, Chibs. Literally."

Chibs gave him a quick nod, "I can take Tiggy."

"I'll go." Jax shook it off as he stubbed the cigarette into the step. "Gimme a few minutes."

* * *

"I heard, Scotty." Barosky's hands were already lifted in a quick defense as he looked up from the newspaper that was spread before him, "Jesus Christ, have I heard. She's got a choke hold on every officer in a fifty mile radius. Retired included."

"She's already spoken to you?" Chibs quickly turned the chair backwards, leaning tightly into it as he caught the interested glance Jax leveled between them.

"And I quote 'I'm not in the mood to wade through your shit, Charlie.'." he snorted as he graced his hands onto the table top before reaching for his half empty coffee cup. "Ball breaker, that one."

"What'd you tell her?" Jax asked with an up lift to his jaw. "You got anything?"

"I got plenty." Barosky cocked to the younger man, eyes slimming serious. "You're not gonna like it any more than she did."

The sudden fall of Telford's gloved palm flattening to the table top rattled between them and drew glances toward the twitched tamping on his jaw. "I'm not in the mood to wade through your shit either, Barosky."

The ex-cop whistled out a sound and cocked a glance toward Teller, catching the way the younger man gave up a supposedly helpless shrug with a sharpened glance. Barosky shook a slowly considering glance between the two of them, inhaling slowly as he realized that Teller wasn't going to weigh over on the other man.

"One of my boys got approached little over a week ago, offered a boggling pile of cash and blow to make one of two people go away." The older man laid out bluntly over the table as he met the Scot's eyes. "Lucky you for being the exact opposite of an easy target."

"And y'didn't fucking call me?" The sudden rise of the Scot's body over the table knocked both the chair into the table and Teller's hand up into his chest, both men pried together over the newspaper that seemed to mock them in its black and white clarity.

"Chibs." Jax's voice rode low between them, his breathing far calmer than the other man's as he nodded. "Relax."

"I didn't know until this morning." Barosky was leaned back in his chair, seemingly both awed and sardonically amused at the wave of fury that was breaking over him. "He didn't come to me until your girlfriend hit the scanners about her Deputy. It was you or her or both. But you two make a pretty formidable pair together, right? And pissing the Sons off isn't necessarily good for business around here. So he cold shouldered it. Used me as his reasoning."

"Somebody went to an officer to get close to her. Makes sense. She's got less protection." Jax spoke intentionally slowly, keeping his words quieted. "Banked on his boys being more cash inclined. Obviously they found a buyer somewhere else."

"Why Carreira?" Chibs shook his head as he shrugged the way the younger man was tugging into him off, leaning his palm to the table for a needed balance as he shook his head in frowning confusion, "Doesn't make sense."

Teller shook his head unknowingly, turning his glance back down over the former officer, "You didn't happen to tell her who was paying, did you?"

"I don't necessarily know." Barosky shook his head slowly. "I'm working on it. Have a cup of coffee and relax, Scotty."

"Go to hell."

"Sit here and drink a damn cup of coffee while you wait to hear what I find out." Barosky was already pressing up from the table and heading behind the counter, "You're no help to her if you get in the way and, frankly, you two probably shouldn't be in the same vicinity right now."

* * *

"It's Dulane." Her voice was a perfectly welcome rush over the line and he let his shoulders break back into the wall on a hard exhalation. "It's the money. The drugs."

"Aye, it is. I know." He agreed as he tucked the phone tighter to his ear. "You all right?"

"I'm fine." The echo of her lungs shuddering over the phone made his chest pinch up tight and he shook his head against frustration. "He cut out after I got to Saint Thomas but I didn't realize it until I went looking for him. I can't let him know I'm looking, Filip. I can't put this over the radio. He'll disappear."

"Ally," he crouched out of pure uninhibited reflex, hips leaned back into the wall as he rubbed gloved fingertips into his forehead, ignoring the way the other men were very obviously watching him from across the room. "tell me to do it."

"No." her tightened refusal slapped over the line. "I'm not going there."

"Just tell me to do it." He let the whisper drag a little into pleading territory. "I'll find him. And it's done."

"I want to know why he went after Carreira first." She countered quickly. "And you're not going to stop to ask for details."

"No, I'm not." A break of rushed frustration snapped his control and he intentionally curbed in another round of oxygen to calm it, "How's the Deputy?"

"On a machine." The hesitated hurt in her voice carried enough that he winced into it as he lifted his head, catching the way Jax had stepped forward and closer into his space.

He caught the blue of the younger man's eyes, swallowing at the concern that finally shattered any questioning or distrust that had recently sheltered there. His head was minutely shaking back and forth at a loss, suddenly speechless in the trap between the safety of her voice and the expectation of the other man's glance. Jax slowly crouched in front of him, head cocked into waiting as he watched Chibs' face.

"Tell me to do it, Althea." He urged into the quiet hush of her breathing, catching the way Jax nodded a barely perceptible agreement into the shaded request.

"I'm guilty enough, Filip." There was a pulling crack in her tone. "I can't."

"We're all guilty here, Ally." He shook his head down away from the glance of blue eyes, avoiding the glint of them. "But you didn't shoot the boy. This is how it ends, love."

"Okay."

He wasn't sure he'd actually really heard her voice and he hitched a tight breath as his head came up, phone still pressed sweated hot to his ear as he met Jax's eyes. "Yes?"

"Okay." She repeated in a blanked tone that sounded sadly accepting to him.

"Okay." He nodded quickly into the way Jax pressed up, hands levering on his knees to rise.

"Have her wait an hour and go home." Teller spoke over him, his eyes already thinning their brightness. "She's gotta make noise about ending her shift. Let him know where she is."

"I can hear him." There was a tweak of annoyance in her tone and it rattled catty over the cell line. "You don't have to repeat it."

"Let me know when you're leaving." He broke over the tone, ignoring it. "I'm sending Tig after you."

"That's not necessary."

"That's not a request." He asserted on a hushed growl. "He'll hang back. It won't be obvious."

She sighed into a sound that was beyond exhaustion. "Nick isn't stupid."

"You're wrong, darlin'." He countered quickly. "He is."


	30. Chapter 30

"Hey, doll." The cache of sympathetic warmth lilting in his voice caught on her shoulders and dragged them tiredly in his direction as she stepped into the too harsh sunshine. "You okay?"

"I'm fine." She patterned a line of patience into the words as she felt his hand squeeze against her forearm, the lack of leather on him blaring bright on the dark hoodie he was wearing. "You boys worry too much."

Tig gave her a quickly put upon smile as he shrugged up thin shoulders, hips angling toward the steps as he waved her forward in a gentlemanly fashion. He was tugging his sunglasses over the intense blue of his eyes as she looked over him, the rigid readiness of his body a sudden reminder of what he was probably capable of regardless how gentle his fingers brushing on her had been.

"He okay?" she angled to the side as she started a slow descent down the steps. "He's got no leash on his anger."

"Spittin' like a snake. But calm." Trager flicked her a sideways smile. "Somebody put a target on his girl."

Ally snorted as she shook her glance into the parking lot, "His girl."

"That's what I said." Tig nodded as his palm framed up against her lower back, head dipping lower as he matched his steps to hers. "That's what I meant."

"This wasn't ever made to last, Trager."

Tig just gave her a winsome smile as his nose wrinkled in odd humor. "You weren't supposed to be you, Ally. You were supposed to be someone we could ignore. I say the fault's on you."

"Thanks for the support." She clapped back into his teasing, catching the wry grin he responded with before his face fell serious.

"He put Montez on your boy. He's at Saint Thomas." He nodded. "Out of the way, quiet, low profile."

"Okay." Her head angled as she neared her car, keys prized up in her palm though she hadn't realized she'd been clinging to them defensively. "So I'm just going home? Just bait?"

"Yup." He stalled at the back of her car, a searching glance around her before he leveled an eerily intent smile on her. "Good fishy. Pretty fishy."

"You're gonna get a slap." She told him succinctly as she unlocked her door, catching the way the both of them searched the empty seats before she tossed her bag into the passenger side.

"Not my bend. Apparently, VP's a bit wilder than I am when it comes to down and dirty." He murmured on a flush grin, tugging his glasses halfway down his nose as he caught the dry way she glared at him in answer. "You just drive. And if shit goes south, keep driving. I've got ya."

"I don't need your protection." She angled between them as she leaned into the car, her head jerking into the way he was already leaned into the open space of the open door.

"You may not need it." He told her as he started leaning the door closed. "Guess that's just too bad, AJ."

"Where is he, Tig?" she broke her palm flush into the door just before he'd latched it, head angled back into the headrest as she let an intentionally sweetened begging into her tone.

Trager gave her a true smile, "Waiting for you."

* * *

She'd lost sight of Trager a good two miles from the house and she'd known it was an intentional disappearing act, his swerving off a broad exit causing a hitch into her breathing that she hated to fess up to. Didn't plan on it either. Her hands felt ached as she finished the drive and parked, instantly realizing that the absence of his bike at the house was both a good idea, and a loss that she wasn't necessarily prepared to feel so heavily in her clamping lungs.

Ally forced herself from the car and into the house, keeping her head forward in a way that kept her shoulders straight and lined up. She disregarded caution as she walked in the door, leaving it intentionally unlocked even as her hands itched in heat to bar it up. The silence of the house was usually a peaceful acceptance of home, but it echoed up loud around her as she moved into its quiet. There was nothing of him in the place, not even the scent of cigarette smoke. At least until she toed open the door to her bedroom with her boot, leaning into the frame so that she could drop a glance over the way he was leaned back on the mattress, cut covered by a sweatshirt and sunglasses pressed back into his hair.

Her head tipped into a sloping angle, lungs loosening into a temporary peace, "Get your goddamn boots off my bed, Telford."

"Y'keep those ones drawn." He aimed his fingers toward the shades on the solitary bedroom window as he nodded, shifting his shoulders forward so that he could land his boots onto the carpet, elbows angling to his knees. "Don't linger in here. I want you visible awhile."

"This baiting thing?" she asked as she stepped into the room, fingers catching into the way he reached toward her leg. "Also unacceptable."

He aimed the press of his head into her stomach, breaking past the reach of her hand so that he could wrap his arm against her legs, curling her closer as she balanced her palm into the back of his head. Ally tripped a glance down the curling of him as he exhaled a relieved sound from his lungs.

"Filip?" she traced feathering fingertips along his neck, head tipped into the sound of him humming a noise of agreement into her stomach. "Could you not just leave an AR15 sitting loaded on my mattress again? Seems gauche."

The sickened look he lifted up at her twitched into a shrug. "Man can't change what he is, Althea."

"Where's Teller?" she traced a line across his forehead, letting his hands work open her belt quickly as he stood into her.

"About." He nodded slowly, "Tiggy's coming round. It's covered."

"Okay." She stepped away from him and into a cageyness that he could see on her hands as she finished pulling off the uniform with faster fingers than his as she nodded a forced acceptance.

He watched her as she chewed onto her lip, debating her movements without a glance turned his way. His eyes followed the turn of her body as she kept the t-shirt on, drawing on a pair of running shorts from the chair, his hands far more sure than hers as he withdrew the Glock from the holster, dropping the belt to the bed. Chibs sloped the other hand against her hip on a sway, laying a smile onto his lips as he turned her into his chest, nodding in a warm support as he laid the front of his body into hers.

"Hey." His fingers shifted slowly, drawing up under the back of her shirt so that he could slide the firearm into her waistband. "Y'could always go make me a sandwich, woman."

"Chauvinist pig." She hissed into him with a clash of both humor and concern.

"I'm the pig, darlin'?" he chuckled his mouth against hers on soft kisses, hands bracing up her jaw, "You're the one with the badge."

"Don't let him shoot me." She nudged knuckles into his chest, feeling the ride of his holster under the fabric of the sweatshirt.

Chibs cocked his jaw into a squinting glance, "He's not gonna get that close, Ally."

"I want Carreira." She demanded into the way he was searching her face. "I wanna know why."

"Ally – "

"I need to know why." Her voice pulled from the guilt she was wearing.

"Y'don't." he argued tightly, fingers digging into her hips as she tried to draw from his rebuttal. "You need to leave this room. You've been in here too long already. Watch the windows."

"I want to know." Hardness went fleeting through her eyes and it pressed a surprise onto him, his hands softening as he realized how darkly serious she was.

"Depends on how it plays out, doesn't it?" his lips brushed hers lightly before he stroked both gloved palms down the length of her hair. "Trust in this, Althea. Just a little while."

She flicked him a glaring and glinting look that shallowed into the way he kissed her softly and lightly, her eyes open to his as he pressed her away from him and aimed toward the door, "Now go."

"I don't want to." She shook her head even as she barefoot back stepped toward the bedroom door.

The smile he gave her was brightened warm but it didn't break the shaded black in his eyes. "I know. Go on."


	31. Chapter 31

It took nearly an hour but for a graceful while he could listen to her linger through the house and let the sound of her trap him lulling into a kind of domestic innocence that hadn't existed in his life for long years. He let it belong to him for a bit, owned the presence of her living normal minutes in a normal house. Except that the situation was so far from normal that he snorted a silently despondent laugh into it. He'd shifted to the edge of her bed, a burning cigarette in the ashtray that he'd left aside, head cocked into the nearly comforting ripple of water running. He flinched, knowing how close her sink was to the broad kitchen windows, but before his hands had fully clenched the sound died off.

"Good girl." He nodded as he reached for the cigarette, piecing it between his lips as he unzipped the sweatshirt, catching the lighting of his silenced phone from the table.

He inhaled as he checked the message from Teller.

"_North corner window."_

Bedroom window. Exactly what he'd pinned his bets on.

"Told her you were a fuckin' idiot." He muttered and stubbed the cigarette as he considered the assault rifle, head cocked over it before he shrugged his shoulder against it and backed into the wall beside the window frame.

He drew both blades from their sheathes as he shook his head back against the wall, the sound of her in the kitchen a tinted echo to the sound of a sudden rattle on the window beside his head.

He wasn't ready to trade in the heartened sound of her down the hall.

He was, however, perfectly prepared to silence one noise to keep the other close.

* * *

It was the sound of breaking glass that shattered the feigned wall of false security she'd built around herself. But even the crashed crumbling of it didn't stall her from moving down the hall with her firearm already in her hand. And even the raking sound of a scuffle landing against a wall didn't stop her from pulling it up into the doorway, head lifted into the way Telford was already twisting the full blade of one of his knives into the shoulder of a familiar blonde.

He was wrapped up along Dulane's shoulder blades, ferocious in the reach of his arms as the gloved hand twisted the blade harder, the other hand bracing the other knife into the younger man's throat. The crushing of his arms and the twisting he was jamming into his wrist was angling the both of them slowly down toward the floor, The Scot's movements terrifying controlled as he drew them both down into crumpled glass and carpet. The sound of his knees grating glass match the shunted groan the deputy leaned off into the air.

"Stop." Her voice collapsed over him and he flicked her a deadened glance that didn't sway from its original intent. "Filip, stop."

"Chibs?" Her shoulders tensed into thrummed call of Teller's voice, the other man already leaned into the doorway behind her. She realized easily that Jax's weapon wasn't aimed in the same direction as hers, and while it wasn't necessarily drawn at her, it was swung low and closer to her than in Telford's direction. The urge to continue guarding the Scot won out the battle against her distrust for the blonde at her side.

Telford's glance strayed between the two of them and she exhaled as he shook his head, taking her gaze and holding it as his wrist bore down harder.

"Please?" She murmured into a pleading. "You don't have to."

"I'm done." He hushed over the weakened groaning Dulane breathed out, blood already pinkly tainting his throat from the paper thin slice that was starting to separate skin.

"Lieutenant - "

"Shut your filthy mouth." Telford's hissed whisper grazed loudly over all three of them and she felt the way Jax tightened around the doorframe, his head turning away from watching her. "Y'don't speak to her."

"Chibs." Jax's gloved hand lifted slowly past the way she was still poised in a trained stance. "She can finish this with a phone call. You can let it go, brother."

"It's done, Jackie." The ride of the other man's voice was riding near manic.

"Naw." Teller shook his head into an intentionally lightened tone, turning a jerked glance into the way Ally lowered the Glock as he softened his voice farther before looking back to Chibs. "You keep going and you're done with something else, I think."

"Stop." She nodded a softened tone to match the breath of the words of the man beside her, holding the browned eyes that were suddenly newly aware of her.

Chibs bit down hard before his arms laxed a fraction, his face slackening as he shook his head into the way she was looking at him. Too much fear and a veering toward reproach. He loosened a little farther, his arms suddenly aching in their tightness. He was watching the nod she gave him as he started shifting the knife from the other man's throat, eyes flicking down the stretch of her arm as her gun came back up sharply. The surprise of the movement in his direction held him sullen still on a possible drop of betrayal, unaware of the hand the deputy was lifting his direction.

The first bullet was hers and the second was Jackson's and they were only a fraction apart.

And both echoed hard on his ear as he ducked to the side, the taste of blood laying onto his lips as he shut his eyes.

* * *

"Jesus Christ." Tig's voice was a well of weary heat between the way the two of them were both slumped to the floor. "I can't leave you two alone for an hour?"

"Don't start." Her head dropped back into the bedroom doorframe, a pressing of complete exhaustion pinning her down into the carpet with her gun hand loose to the floor, the weapon barely braced in her fingertips.

"Call Hap." Chibs' voice was just as seemingly weary from the opposite side of the bedroom, his legs bent before him and his back against the wall, both gloved hands leaning his knees. "Shit needs to be cleaned up."

"No." she shook her head slowly, letting her skull rock back and forth on the ridge of the frame. "You all need to clear out so I can call this in."

"No," Chibs dipped his jaw back down as Tig stepped over her lax legs, crouching slowly over the dead deputy's body. "It needs to be quiet. Ya can't explain Jackie's bullet or the knife wounds without puttin' yourself in jeopardy."

"I mean," Tig's head lifted as he bounced a glance back and forth between the two of them, "holy hell, guys. Overkill much?"

"Tiggy." Chibs exhaled hard as his legs went flat, his eyes meeting hers across the room in an aching reach for her warmth. "Stow it."

"Get her outta this room, huh? Get cleaned up." Trager caught the other man's eyes in a gentle softness of agreement, his hand breaking down to catch against Telford's leg, "Hap and I can handle this."

Chibs nodded slowly, catching into the other man's fingers for leverage to stand, "Thank you, brother."

Tig pulled into the reaching, balanced on the balls of his feet to lever the other man off the floor as he shook his head over the mess of blood, "Yeah. You got it."


	32. Chapter 32

He hadn't spoke to her until she'd gotten him half undressed, the water already running hot in the shower and bloodied clothes dropped along pristine tile. And when he did finally speak, it wasn't in English, but it wasn't all that hard to understand regardless. It was a murky mix of sullen apology and pained affection - and the fact that he'd used Gaelic to intentionally hide what he was actually feeling didn't do much to cover the fact that his eyes held more trepidation than she'd expected. Too much worry and more of something like worship than she thought he'd probably like to lay between them.

Ally shook her head into the way he pressed his forehead tiredly to hers, her fingers braced along the coiled strength of his arms. "It's okay. You did what I asked you to do."

"I forced you to ask." He drove his forehead harder into hers.

"You don't force me to do anything, Telford." She felt a smile want on her lips but it didn't come alive. "You ask. And I can't seem to tell you no."

"You're too calm on this, love." He squinted over her, realizing that she was searching over the blood that was still staining his skin. And it kept him from wanting to kiss her, as much as his muscles burned to do it anyhow.

"I am far from calm." She admitted in a rattled whisper. "Trust me."

The arched brow he gave her damn near hedged into sardonic humor.

"I did, now didn't I?" he asked as he gently pushed her back, hands shirking his belt undone as he watched her face. "And y'didn't disappoint."

"I generally don't, Filip. You should have learned that by now." she whispered into the way he was stripping his clothes, already stepping into the shower on a half smirk. The echo of his movements tripped her back to their earlier fight. And that tripped her farther back into other discussions.

"You told me you'd kill him if he ever broke into my house again."

He just gave her a tired look, face ashen pale as he stepped into the water, "You asked me not to. And I just can't seem to tell you no, Ally."

"You do, though. When it comes to them." She murmured back, catching the way it lifted his head from the spray, another man's blood already trickling off his slackened jaw.

"And so do you." He asserted softly. "When it comes to them."

"What did you say to me?" she was treading back to the door gently. "The Gaelic?"

He snorted his face under the spray, words tinny under the water as he avoided her glance with eyes shut, "Y'already know, Cu Sith."

"Sure, but someday you're gonna need to share with the class, Scotty."

* * *

"Clean shot, Jarry. I did not see that coming."

She didn't mean to jump into the man's words but they raked across already raw nerves, fish-hooking into her skin and holding there as she entered the kitchen. She felt suddenly extremely exposed under Teller's tipped glance, his young face looking more aged than it should in the sunny kitchen. His fingers were pressed upon a pack of cigarettes, one of her ashtrays already settled in the middle of the table as he sat sidelong to it.

"I don't know how to respond to that right now." She shook her head as she forced herself across the kitchen anyhow, digging into the bag she'd left on the counter.

Teller flashed an amused glance in her direction, eyes wider and almost roaming younger in the way he snorted as she tugged a joint from her purse and leaned into the table. One hand pressed flat to the wood to sturdy her nerves as she confiscated his lighter and sucked down a long drag of the weed, the taste an easy out for her shakiness to take. He suddenly tipped off a broad laugh as he shook his head, taking the joint as she offered it up, the smoke trapped deep down in her lungs as she held onto it, exhaling just before a cough brought it back between them.

Jax turned his body into the table, elbows digging into the wood as he took a small drag and passed it back, the very movement just a measure of peace keeping. "You just got yourself beyond dirty, Lieutenant."

"Didn't think joining your VP in the shower was appropriate considering you have two psychopaths in my bedroom cleaning up what was obviously murder." She didn't dare sit down, didn't dare drop to the chair and onto a physical level with him.

She was too battered up to let him ride over her, and he was too practiced to have this moment much dwell on him. The very idea of letting him run her down in the conversation was infinitely unacceptable. Not when he was looking at her with complicit blue in his eyes, as though they'd just successfully rolled a bank together. Or maybe even murdered a man with matching hands.

"You know exactly what I mean." He cocked his head on a cynical smile.

"I do, Teller." She snapped over him before pressing off the table, laying her hips back into the kitchen counter as she took another drag. "You don't need to rub it in."

"I'm not." Jax lifted his hand in a half attempt of defense that fell flattened out between them, "I'm just… surprised."

"Yeah?" she felt frustration crackle up her throat. "Me too."

"You gonna be able to carry this, Jarry?" his eyes were again older than the rest of his face as he studied her intently. "Can you live on this level? Down here with the trash? I mean, really?"

She swallowed into his accusatory and pointed glance, feeling the tip from nervous to flash bang angry in her spine, "I shot the bastard first, didn't I? Where the hell were you, Teller? Stop for a drink somewhere?"

A sort of mirth crossed his features before he relaxed in the chair again with a nod, breathing out amusement as he reached for his cigarettes, "Yeah, I guess you do seem like an ends-justify-the-means sorta gal."

They sank into a silence then, doubled smoke curling into the spaces of her kitchen as the sound of the shower running down the hall echoed their quietness. Ally shook her head slowly as she leaned forward, stubbing the last of the joint into the ashtray as he watched her movements, his glance thinly cautious in the quiet.

"I need coffee." She broke awkwardly into the silence, turning toward the pot she'd made only a forever ago.

"Boys are gonna have to wait till dark to get him outta here." Jax murmured into a softened gentleness. "Apartments at TM are half back. Chibs can take you. You should get some sleep."

"I need…" she swallowed the jagged edging on her tone, intentionally trying to soften her words into a request rather than demand. "Can you find a way to leave this open ended? He's got a wife and kids who don't necessarily deserve any more shit. This… it wasn't their fault."

"Sure." Jax's voice was softer in reply than she expected as she poured a cup of coffee and the true gentleness in it had her reaching for another cup to offer him. "We'll take it out of Charming. Lodi can carry it. Make it look drug related. He's gonna pop a positive drug test in autopsy anyhow."

"Thank you." She breathed out, the taste of her appreciation akin to bitterness.

"You're welcome." The response tasted even worse, even if his voice was layered in ranges of sympathy.

"I don't need to go to TM." She shook her head as she carried both cups to the table, setting them down before settling herself into the chair, balancing their glances over the table. "I need to get back to Saint Thomas."

He winced her a shaded glance of actual apology, head tipped, "No, you don't."

She didn't want to believe what he was implying.

Didn't want to trust in anything that came out of his devilish mouth.

Unfortunately, she didn't doubt this truth.

"My office would have called me." She accused between them.

Teller nodded slowly and legitimately apologetically, "I'm sure they will. Just talked to Montez twenty minutes ago. He's probably halfway back to Scoops already."

"And I still don't know why he's dead." She shook her head slowly, eyes dropping to the ashtray that he was stubbing his cigarette into.

"Not gonna." Jax supplied quietly before pushing up from the chair, picking up the coffee she'd offered him as he moved to leave the kitchen. "I'm gonna check in with the boys and then get outta here. I have other shit that needs to get done today. We good, Lieutenant?"

Surreal was a deeply inadequate understatement.

And her life was miles beyond it when Jackson Teller was sipping coffee in her kitchen, and his Vice President was in her shower, and his soldiers were wrapping up a homicide down the hall like a goddamn Christmas gift.

She was an ends-justify-the-means girl?

She didn't know what she was anymore.

"Yeah." She lifted her own cup in a jaded acceptance of the situation that seemed to almost still her jangling nerves, "We're good, Teller."

What she was… she was alive. And protected, in a way.

Even if this sort of peace he'd contracted between them was fleeting.

"I mean it about TM." He offered as he turned down her hall. "Tell Gemma to blow it out her ass."

She waited until he was out of her sight to drop her forehead to her arms on the table, shuddering her lungs into the edge of it as she let her guard finally fall. She didn't cry – but she did let a little rage stir up a fire in her lungs, the twinge of it scenting like weed and gunpowder.

She despised him all over again when her phone rang dread up her back.


	33. Chapter 33

It was the queen mother herself that finally broke the tenuous grasp she'd had on penning in any brand of emotion – and she thoroughly despised herself for it. Because when Gemma softly offered a clean set of sheets into her hands it seemed too much like a bag of silver to a Judas. And she knew that she couldn't speak because it would shatter the fact that this woman was, for once, letting a sort of forced tact between them. Telford's hands against her arms saved her as he leaned into her shoulder, letting his jaw catch even with the older woman's as he laid a kiss into her cheek.

"Thanks, mom." His whisper was woven with a respect that had Ally's skin flushing up hot but she tamped it down intentionally.

"Thank you." She angled toward the older woman softly, swallowing a whole lot more than indignation.

"You're welcome." Gemma blinked between them, her calculating eyes scattering over the way Chibs was completely curled into the back of the Sheriff's frame. "I had the crew call it a day. Should be quiet. Your room's still a mess though. You know that."

His voice was warm through his throat. "Just need the sleep, Gem. We're not lookin' for a Hilton."

"Jackson needs you at church later." She offered as he shifted Ally forward. "Or a proxy."

"I know that, Gemma." He'd already drawn from the interaction, hands guarding warmth onto Ally's hips as he shifted her farther forward.

* * *

"I don't know what I am." She admitted into the way she was blankly studying his hand over hers, the lay of his longer and stronger fingers between hers just before his rings bit on her, his fist closing tightly around her palm. "I did. I was sure I did. And now I don't."

"Stop, Ally." He curled her hand down into her chest, wrapping tighter around the way he'd cradled her into a smaller bed than they were used to laying into together. "Y've done nothing to change who you are."

"That's bullshit." She jerked into the way his jaw was fitted into her shoulder. "And you know it. Killing him wasn't necessary."

"Y'didn't wait for it to become necessary." His whisper was treading carefully against her ear, the smell of her hair an opiate that made him hazy in exhaustion. "Considering the possibilities, I appreciate that."

"I know I'm not a clean cop, Filip." Her voice was treading toward a fracture. "I know I'm not innocent. But this is… it's too far."

"This makes us a little more even, love." He wrapped her tighter, his hand clenching hers into the center line of her sternum. "And you're the only one judgin' yourself for it. So accept it and let yourself sleep."

"Or?" her whisper was too washed in sadness.

"Or we can't make this work." He hushed into the side of her throat, eyes shut against the possibility that she was too damn close from crawling out of his tightened up arms. "And it needs to stop. Right now."

"You're giving me an ultimatum right now?" the sudden flared up hissing in her voice barely preceded the roughened turning of her spine and he groaned an unending frustration into the jerk of movement. "I just shot a man in the head because he reached for you. For fuck's sake, Filip. Haven't I proven myself enough for today?"

"Have you?" he lifted their still grasped hands on a darkening glance, kissing the back of her hand with a pushing tone. "Y'have for me. But you're the one still ripping yourself up."

"I don't understand why it had to be you." Her eyes were tired but near on loving as her breathing suddenly went slow. "Why the one I can't leave behind is the one I shouldn't keep."

"Because you truly seem to enjoy wreckin' yourself over and again." He whispered his lips chastely onto hers as her fury finally settled. "And because answered prayers are usually punishments."

"People like us deserve to be punished." She turned her head into his neck, words dropped off in a sort of acceptance.

"You're right, Ally." He whispered back over her, feeling the way she tightened his fingers between hers. "So shut up and take your lumps or get the hell outta this bed."

"Make me." She shunted into his throat as she twisted into the front of him, her fingers prying out of his so that she could wrap against his shoulders.

"Aye." He finally rubbed his nose into her hair as he dragged her thigh up against his hip and wrapped her close. "And that's what I thought, Lieutenant."

"You think we can make this work?" her fingers were twisting up in his beads, head tucked at an angle into his neck and shoulder, her voice more than wistful and heading toward sleep. "Really?"

"Think we just made it clear we're gonna try like hell." Even he was surprised at the realization, his breathing sagging toward even. "Now would y'let me sleep? You're damn exhausting, Althea."

He felt her smile on the skin of his throat as her fingers wiped along his chest. "You love the tired, Telford. You enjoy the wreckage too. It's what keeps you going. Keeps you staying."

"I'm not in your interrogation room, Sheriff." He growled against the silken darkness of her hair as he pinned his hips angled over hers. "You're not gonna trip me up into sayin' something I don't necessarily mean yet. So shut up and go to sleep."

"You will." She turned the words into his jaw and he didn't need to see her eyes to know how smug they were as her hand stroked up his back and flat palmed his spine. "If you stay like this."

"Thought we'd decided neither of us was goin' anywhere." He lifted his head into her confident assertion, eyes catching the way she was curling a cat-catching-cream smile down over him.

"Go to sleep." Her fingers were a light tracing on his forehead, approval balancing her breathing even.

He just winced her a cocky smile, "You first."


	34. Chapter 34

He blindly strafed his hand back from the way he was leaned off the opposite side of the single bed, a boot still clipped in his other fingers as he rubbed into her pelvis with a hushing noise. The plaintive and weakened sound she made in her sleep led him on a turn and he let the boot drop, not caring if the sound woke her as his fingers pried her hip closer. Chibs dropped his jaw down along her shoulder, hand breaking reflexively up to catch the way she slapped toward him as she woke.

"Easy, love." He nearly laughed into the fight of her fingers as he clenched her palm closed, her breathing a rapid rush that escalated rather than calmed. "You're just dreaming."

"You're leaving." Her eyes caught along his as he leaned over her, panic playing into the colors in her eyes.

"I gotta go." As often as he said it, at least he had the grace to sound apologetic.

"You keep telling me that." She sighed off into the way he rubbed his forehead along the curve of her shoulder, sinking in the smell of her laundry soap. "Just keep coming back. Safely."

"Giving orders, Lieutenant?" he cocked his head up to watch the film of nightmares slide from her face, replaced by the fuzziness of waking. "I'm not one of your deputies."

"No." she agreed with him quietly, laying her head back as he drew back to the other side, leaning to reach for his boots while her hand braced his spine.

"It's just a vote, darlin'." he cast back in warmth as he tugged his boot on, winking at her as he leaned into the press of her palm. "No trouble."

Ally just turned her head into the pillow they'd shared, hair waved against it as her brow arched, "Don't placate me."

"It's just a vote, Ally." He repeated, nodding into the warning tone she'd given him.

"Better." She nodded as her nails scraped down the fabric of his shirt, her body curling into his back slowly as she dragged her arm up under her head.

"Be good, yeah?" he teased a shy smile over, "Gemma's still downstairs. No scrapping."

"Not one of your brothers, Telford. But I'll take it under consideration."

* * *

She'd been paused into waiting and she took advantage of the time, her glance drifting off the windows as he left on the bike. Ally stepped past the obvious stretch of construction work that was rebuilding the structural integrity of a central wall, eyes tripping over a wide doorway before she paused at the pool table, fingers wiping the felted red that had been ripped ragged and torn. Her hand stretched onto the pile of shattered photo frames that had been left in a desolate and dusted pile, smiling into the way the some faces seemed familiar but off in time. A table of time capsules, proof of their solidarity in a sort of rebellious pride.

She felt more than heard Gemma's presence in the very resounding clip of boots behind her, the echo of it vibrating up her sternum as perfume taunted on her.

It was unfair, this match.

She was unprepared and still wearily worn in just jeans and a t-shirt.

She was too emotionally bare and bankrupt to be brawlish.

"Think this is the one you're looking for, Lieutenant." Gemma placed herself intentionally close, riding sidelong to Ally's hip as she dragged a frame from under a few others and brought it closer. "It's a horrible picture of him. Young, though. Younger than I remember him ever being."

"I've seen it." Ally offered lightly as she traced the broken frame.

"I'm sure you have." Gemma nodded a glance over the front of the other woman, eyes tipping down into the way both of Jarry's hands pressed whitened along the edge of the pool table. "Sure you've seen all of them. Did a little background check? Little history?"

"I'm not an idiot." Ally intentionally distanced herself from both the photo and the intentionally intimidating leaning of the other woman's frame, her fingers trailing the table as she stepped around it. "Of course I did."

"His ex wife alone should have warned you off." The verging taunt in the other woman's tone was intentionally placed. "Real IRA? Larkin's got a stone cold heart, Sheriff. You don't worry about that coming back around?"

That hit twisted on her a little.

It was something she generally did her best to ignore.

Not that his daughter's name scrawled across his chest didn't make it an every day reminder.

"From what I can tell, if he'd wanted it back, he could have had it." Ally angled over the pile of debris. "Seems he didn't want it."

"Tiggy told me what you did." Gemma cast over the table as she angled her head on a nod of supposed acceptance. "I should thank you for that."

"Tig wasn't there." Ally shot up quickly, letting her voice whip as tightly as her eyes as she studied the hip cocked way Gemma leaned her weight into the table. "Not in the room."

"You think they don't tell each other everything?" the older woman snorted as she shook her head. "Those boys have relied on only each other for years. He'll always trust them over you. And it doesn't seem likely that you're the type of woman who can accept that."

"What's it like?" Ally cocked up in a blanked glance, jaw lifting into the question, "It must be exhausting… Being Wendy to a pack of perpetual Peter Pans? Their mother, their Mary, their infatuation?"

The older woman slowly let a shake of the head go wide, a feral smile curling patiently onto her lips as she studied the Sheriff. "You're a witty little thing, Lieutenant. And that brain's gonna be nothing but trouble for you and him."

"Scared of losing one of your lost little boys, Mrs Teller?" she asked softly back, intentionally keep her voice neutral. "Or just scared of losing even more control?"

There was a twisting of emotions on the other woman's face, "I don't control them."

"That's an awfully pretty lie to tell yourself." Ally nodded as she caught against the edge of another photo, searching over the face of the other woman's dead husband before shuffling it loudly over the rest of the stack, letting it slide raggedly and clatter in Gemma's direction. "How's it holding up these days?"

The darker of the two just hedged out a laughed breath of cynicism as the jut of her palm stilled the photo of Clay from tripping any farther along. "Damn, bitch."

Ally nodded into a fleeting smile that was nothing of affection. "Wanna go on to round two?"

"Ya know," the older woman lifted her hands as she started stepping away slowly, "I just came over to offer you a cup of coffee and let you know that Chucky can drive you back to the station."

"Along with a healthy dose of Teller intimidation?" Ally spoke after her. "Not in the market."

"Does seem as though you're very off the market, sweetheart." Gemma just gave her a shaded smile as she turned away, something near almost respect swimming in her eyes as she waved toward what was left of a broken down bar. "Coffee's ready."


	35. Chapter 35

A few days later and the name of the man that had caused such a deep dissonance was obliterated from their combined vocabulary. Because there was an evident flinch in her eyes when it was voiced between them and a tensing on his jaw that slacked his face pale. So they made a silent pact, no discussion had, that made him a non-entity to any interaction.

She didn't mention the report filed on the body found in Lodi. The secondary investigation on a second deputy dead. The lashing phone calls from Patterson that had her shoulders feeling like she'd been whipped down like a goddamn dog. And in return he kept her head turned from the slight bleached discoloration of her carpeting when he stroked her into bed. Nor did he tell her that it had been August Marks that tapped his finger to his boys and sent an unstable man in their direction. It was right top of the list of things she just didn't need to know, a list that he kept filed in a mental depth that he didn't like to bring to light all that often. And certainly not when he was teasing the tips of his fingertips along the lowest arch of her spine before the curve of her ass.

Ally made a jutted noise of disagreement into the movement, her hand slapping back against his fingers only to be trapped into the way he stepped rapidly into her, her wrist grappled into his closing hand as he laid into the naked back of her. He shunted her tightly forward into the sink, the door to her bedroom still flared wide open as he laid his face into shower wet hair.

"Too early." He told her succinctly, curling hands against the jutting breaks of her pelvic bones as he pinned her tight between his hips and the sink. "Too early, Althea."

Her shoulders reflexively angled forward into the way he was pushing on her, eyes travelling the shifting in the mirror so that she could watch the petulant and childish frowning draw over his features. She turned her jaw slightly to the side but kept her glance along the reflection, knowing his eyes were closed against the bright bathroom lights even as he dug her tighter into the front of him.

"Too much to do today." She explained softly, watching the way he finally lazily lifted his head into the way she was watching him in the mirror.

"Come back to bed, love." He was pressing his jaw into the side of her head, eyes holding hers intently. "Y'should still be mine for hours."

He was always an indelicate and indecent trouble when she was in a hurry.

Because he just couldn't help himself from being mischievous when she was already flustered.

And she had no guard against his smile when it dimpled boyish into sorrowed scars.

"I can't." she shook her head against the way he'd drawn his fingertips up her ribs, watching the shivered dimpling it drew on her skin in the fastidiously clean mirror. "I got up early for a reason."

"I've plenty of reasons. Most of 'em very naked at the moment." He nodded his head along the side of hers as his palms skated her arms and brought them forward onto the sink, the resistance in her muscles suddenly completely vacant under the scrutiny of velveted brown eyes. His hands grazed back along her hips in a manner so intimately possessive of them that she wasn't sure she hadn't somehow given him written permission to own them.

Except maybe she had.

Because he kept a paper in his wallet with her signature on it and he'd taunted it on her in the middle of a playful fight that had turned into making up on a dime's toss.

"Filip." There was a stressed apology in her voice as she turned her head from the mirror, avoiding how deliciously aching the vision of his hand lifting and drawing her hair to the side was.

He nodded a kiss along her ear, an obvious tension laying into his voice that made her lower back arch as he groaned onto her shoulder. "I know. Just gimme a little more."

"You can have tonight." She nodded into the way he turned his head to look over her face, his eyes still sleepily warm and affectionate and not yet solidified by the reality of the day's breaking.

"Yeah? Damn generous of you, Lieutenant." His sure hands caught back against her arms and he curled them up into her chest. The flex of his muscles went wrapping around her as he drove his hips tighter and dropped a kiss on her that sank her so weak limbed into his chest that she let his flexed control and a thigh braced between hers keep her upright. His tongue was an inevitable invasion between her lips and she let it happen. White fucking flag. She wasn't about to battle against it when he was wrapping her arms so tightly into her chest that she could feel her own subjugated heartbeat on the skin of her forearm.

He didn't often make her feel all that weak. Usually he made her feel a double shot of sturdiness, just by the surety in each decision he made without quantifications or questioning. Even when they were scrapping up and tearing each other apart, the fact he didn't hold back on her made her feel ten times taller. He only treated her so softly when he was completely unguarded. And early morning begging made her goddamn weak in the knees – or rather just kicked them straight out from under her.

"You son of a bitch." She hissed into the way he was wiping his lips along her jaw and she felt his grin brush her cheek along with the rush of his beard.

"Aye, keep all that in mind." He loosened his hold from her, pressing her forward into the sink as he started away, slapping against her ass playfully. "Maybe you can have it tonight."

* * *

Her impatience with being distracted in the middle of trying to organize an entire department into a funeral march was very suddenly cut down by the unmitigated sound of engines that were too raw to be anything but Harleys. She'd learned the gunned growl by its repetition in and out of her own driveway - but this was an amplified roar that preceded a whole pack of them.

"I'll be goddamned." Unser's slackened surprised was a verbal echo of the exact way her lungs were feeling as she braced her arms over her chest. "That's one hell of an entourage."

"I didn't ask him to do this." She shook her head in a tightened up defensive tone, catching the varied reactions of the other officers. "I had nothing to do with it, Wayne."

"They wouldn't have done it if you'd asked, Jarry." Wayne snorted a dry laugh between them, "Don't get moony over it. This isn't just about Carreira. This is just another way for them to bring Charming back to their way of thinking."

She cocked her head into the point he was making, shrugging her shoulders into a half agreement even as she watched the bikes line behind the cruisers that were fielded down the street in front of the Catholic church.

"Tell me something, Wayne?" she asked as she started stepping away and toward the bikes, head angling toward him as she pitched her steps backwards on a turn, "there were a lot less dead bodies showing up when Charming agreed with their way of thinking, yeah?"

"That's no barometer for right and wrong, Sheriff." He cast after her tightly, looking sallow and thin in the sunshine on a dark suit. "It stopped working, remember?"

"History tends to repeat itself."

And she turned away from his argument, straight into the way both men at the front of the line of bikes were watching her come toward them. Teller was leaned forward into the bars, his body relaxed as he lifted his head on a nod of acknowledgment. And the other was leaned back in the seat, his hands pressing his thighs in a way that drew her eyes so harshly down the length of his cocked legs that the sudden sweated heat on her skin had nothing to do with the sun and whole lot to do with a sudden wracking of too proud possession. And it surprised her so thoroughly - to feel so knowingly sure that, even if temporarily, they held an owning on each other that could live in the way he knocked his helmet off and gave her a smirk.

"All about respect, Jarry." Jax lifted his palms into her approach, his voice intentionally soft and affable. "Thought we'd hang back. Bring up the line. Carreira was a good man."

"Half my guys think you're just waving dick. You know that." She nodded tightly as she gave up on ignoring the fact that Chibs was laying a look over her that was built up on a whole foundation of smartass sass and blatantly visible lust. "And you seem to have a serious staring problem, Telford."

"Full dress?" He cocked his head into the beating sunshine on a squint even though he was wearing his sunglasses. "Must be damn hot under that collar, Lieutenant."

Trager's sharp whistling came up behind him in a way that just drove her spine straighter, her glance roving toward Teller to find him just lifting his shoulders in a supposedly helpless shrug.

"Those two are hopeless. I'll make sure they don't disturb the peace."

Ally just cocked him a glare. "Thirty feet back and keep it to a dull roar, boys."

She watched the two men before her share a sidelong smile before they synced into an easily lazed response. "Yes, ma'am."

She started a slow turn, catching the way Chibs was watching her as he tugged his helmet back on, his teasing replaced by a softened warmth as she mouthed a silent 'thank you', not caring that it was just as obvious as the wink he gave back.


	36. Chapter 36

This good mood just couldn't last. That's the lesson history was unendingly teaching him. It couldn't hold against all the base and degrading shit that was still circling around them. Not that he wouldn't admit they'd brought much of it upon themselves. But some days it seemed as though karma was upending buckets in response to tipped teacups. Still, he was riding somewhere along the gilded heat that had been in her eyes when she'd given him an obviously longing look. And karma could be damned. He wasn't giving up on that momentary high.

"She's gonna be pissed if you just sit here all night." Tig's voice was a gentled taunting as he flopped onto the couch beside the Scot. "Especially if she knows you're here."

"She knows." There was a creeping grin laying into the other man's lips as he intentionally shunted lower on the couch, watching one of the Red Woody girls stalk long legged before them on a pair of heels so spiked pointed that she could have murdered with them. "Told her. That's the bloody point, Tigger."

Tig's chuckle was softly breathing between them, "You're startin' shit with the woman that looked you up and down like a porterhouse this afternoon? That's some twisted eunuch shit, brother."

"She started in this morning." Chibs grinned forward as he hooked the beer bottle that was half empty and already warming from the table beside him, "I'm endin' it."

"I really don't understand you two." Trager's voice sighed out on a sort of whimsical affection. "You're not happy unless you're taking shots. Then you're both fucking giddy."

"Week ago you were worried she was actually gonna take a shot at me, Tiggy." Chibs angled his jaw into the commentary, head tipping as he finished the beer.

"Still am." Trager admitted softly as a scene full of scantily clad women filled in before them, his head shaking minutely. "Doesn't mean I can't find your dysfunction sort of adorable."

"Her dysfunction is adorable." Chibs asserted softly in a weak admission of affection, his head angling as he let his eyes linger along the way one of the girls bent onto a prop bed.

He felt Trager's eyes on pin down on him and he shrugged into turning his head back toward the other man, jaw jerking defensive. "I'm allowed to look, Tiggy. For fuck's sake, she's no Old Lady."

"Bull." Tig smirked brightly, lips curling as his eyes went sky colored. "Shit."

"Fuck off." Chibs argued tightly, as he turned his glance back toward the girls in front of them. "She's not."

"Yeah?" Tig was already pressing up from the couch, his smile brightening even farther between them as he half bent and waved toward the door. "So you don't want me to tell Hap to lay off her? Cause she's about two inches from twisting his balls off. Seems sorta Old Lady-ish to me."

The Scot turned his head smirkingly into the way she was bearing down on the other club member at the nearest door, her hair down along shoulders that were so tightly racked he could find each muscle lining down the length of her. "Guess I win, yeah?"

"Prize is an ass beating, looks like." Tig offered amusedly as he stepped away from the couch and toward them. "Which is a win/win for both of you from what I hear."

He ignored the comment and tossed a glance to one of the girls that was lagging outside of the scene that was playing out before them, "Wanna grab me another round, darlin'?"

He matched the smiling nod she gave him before he watched his friend move away from him with a knowing grin. His spine went leaning farther back into the couch cushions supposedly casually as he settled the empty bottle to the table. Chibs let his head lay back into the plush cushion, angling his glance over the way the lithe lines of her relaxed as Tig pressed himself between her and the Sergeant at Arms, the other man's breezy affection wearing down on her frustration as he hooked a hand at her hip and drew her past Happy. He bit down against the way Tig's arm catching low along her waist had his hands twitching closed, regardless of the fact that it was a purely platonic movement.

It was exactly what he should have wanted. It was a branding of a sort of acceptance.

But it was also the first time he'd seen her in a skirt that laid her hips like another skin.

So maybe it tweaked on him a bit.

And maybe it burned him from the bottom of his lungs.

"Push up on it any farther and I'll be pushin' back, Tigger." He murmured into the amused way Tig drew her closer in response, laying a kiss against the side of her head before drawing away from her.

"He's lightin' fires tonight, AJ. Hope you brought a very big hose."

"Well, I'd need to provide my own, now wouldn't I?" she snarked between them, her eyes a darker shade of golden green than he'd seen since very early morning, the angles of her face a map to her obvious annoyance and amusement.

Trager's laughter as he drew away from them bent into the way Chibs leaned forward, one of his hands drawing down to wipe along her calf as he turned his jaw up at her. Her arms were braced along the front of her in a so derogatorily defensive posture that he couldn't help but smile into the anger on her. His teeth scraped along his bottom lip as he studied the way it tightened up the muscles under smooth skin, tracing the hem of the black skirt before he swept a glance over the equally dark tailored jacket that cut in just where it needed to and ran trim along her hips.

An unintentional smirk tweaked the corner of his mouth, "Coming from a wake or on your way to mine, love?"

"Both, obviously." Her fingers slapped his away from her sharply and he lifted them lightly into the air with a warning glance of annoyance. "Thought you had someplace to be tonight? And I don't mean the front row of a poorly made porno."

"I said 'maybe'." He cocked up at her cheekily, "And they're not poorly made, they're quality productions. Lyla works very hard. Don't be rude, Althea."

"Don't be a bastard." She flicked over him tightly, her fingers finally drawing off her arm so that they ran against his jaw before hooking his chin higher. "It's unbecoming."

"You didn't have to come." He taunted at her, catching the rising ride of golden challenge in her eyes. "I said if y'wanted."

She meant to respond, but the interruption at her side made her suddenly once again aware of where they were and what was going on at her back. And the sudden distraction of a half naked woman aiming a bottle in his direction gave him enough time to notice that there was a long drop of silver chaining around her neck and down the center line from her throat. And more in her ears. And she was wearing more make up than usual. Nothing too painted, but a smoky step up from what he usually saw. It was more of a distraction than he'd realized because she nipped the bottle from the girl's hand before he could reach for it and held it back a moment. The tightly derogatory shake of the head she gave the other woman before handing the bottle back and virtually dismissing her with an arched glance warred the ride of two emotions on him.

The first that she had deftly and swiftly denied him exactly what he'd asked for. And that rightly pissed him off.

Secondly, that she'd very assuredly and so very quietly just placed herself in a position of tailored power that levered her up a notch over the other girls in the room. And that may have made him half hard.

"I asked for that." He told her tightly, glance thinned.

"And I asked for you." She shot back over him. "And you directed me to a porn studio."

"You're too bold some days, Althea." His voice swept quiet as his palm curled her thigh, feeling the sudden tense of muscle beneath his fingers.

"And you're too cocky, Filip." Her tone tipped widely weary. "I asked for you. Maybe I deserve what I got."

He glanced up on a sudden concern that maybe he'd taken it too far, pushed her a little too much on a day that had been far too long on her frame. And had he just taken in the tiredness of her dropped shoulders, he could have carried on in that assumption. But there was still a glinting in her eyes as she rode a fingertip over his left eyebrow, a downright dueling challenge in the way her hips angled closer as both her hands caught along his jaw. He caught the gauntlet she dropped on him with both hands hooking against the backs of her knees. Shifting so swiftly that he shunted her tightly into his lap, skidding the hem of the skirt up with the skiff of his palms as she straddled his legs in a reflexive response.

"It wasn't technically a wake." She let her hands brace his neck as she shifted her knees into the cushions, letting him curl the skirt hem a little higher for the easier break of movement.

"That'd be cuz the brown kid wasn't technically a Celt." He smirked on her as his palm cradled her hips.

"If you wanted a drink, you could have just come to my liquor cabinet." She let her hair tip forward off her shoulders because she knew his eyes lidded low when he watched it happen, her head dipping over his. "It's better quality."

"Snob." He twitched at her in a cautionary manner.

Her brow arched into the way she leaned a kiss down on him, her thighs tightening on his legs as she skated her nails on the skin at the back of his neck. She heard the hummed echo of what was going on behind her and intentionally cupped her palms against his ears as she drove a hard kiss against his lips. He gave a groaning into her tongue and the way it slid against his as she let her thumbs rub a softening along his cheeks as she nipped her teeth lightly against his bottom lip before dragging back.

"What're y'doin', Ally?" he asked amusedly, groaning into the way she was letting her hips drive tighter down into him as his hands skated up under the hem of the jacket to find the black silk of the shirt she was wearing under it.

"I don't think you'll like the answer." She let her lips slick past his in a way that had his mouth lifting for more of her even as she drew back.

"Tell me then." His thumb was pressing into her stomach and dragging down so that he could shift silk from linen and find skin beneath it, the rest of his hand curling onto her waist. "I can take it."

Her head tipped an angle as her fingers scraped down the edging of his cut, prying it apart so that she could lean her chest full into his, his palms reflexively caging around her ribs and dragging the surplus of fabric as he gave in to the urge to lick along her perfumed throat, "Showing these enterprising little bitches where your dick belongs, Scotty."

"You're right." Chibs let his head lay back into the cushion again, a glaring on his face that didn't necessarily darken the interested and mildly amused glittering in his eyes, "I don't like it."

"Telford?" her hips shifted into a sharp angle that instantly brought her down tighter into the erection that was damp hot against denim, her lips hovering a fraction from his, "You're a piss poor liar."

He blushed a laughing smile into her lips, "I know, love."


	37. Chapter 37

She'd worked him up far past gentle and she'd damn well known what she was doing when she'd started on it. And she'd started by curling cradled into his touch at four in the morning, so simply letting him possess her even as she'd denied him. It hadn't been the denying that had raked him hot coaled. She pushed back his advances often enough. It had been the softened innocence of her apology. The public show of affectionate appreciation later in the day. The grazing glances she'd been giving him that were bred evenly between wanting and claiming.

After Dulane something had been shifted off its foundation by an upturn of their footing.

And that something was in her eyes and suddenly very sure of their new formation.

It hadn't taken long for her to nudge him into lifting her off the couch, her fingers prying and pulling on him in a way that he may have fought before, but leaned into now. He'd thrown off a silent prayer of an apology to Lyla even as he'd dropped her against the other woman's desk, her skirt already driven up her hips and his fingers digging against her underwear.

"Leave them." Her hands were slapping against his again and he growled into it, catching on her fingers and lifting his head into the way she pressed forward even against the way he was trying to hold her still. "Now."

"Impatience, Althea." He told her sharply as she jerked her hands hard away from his gripping, her fingers already catching against his cut so that she could draw it tightly over his chest.

"Leave them on. This too." She nodded as her palms crested the leather before using it to jerk him closer, mouth rising hard against his.

Their hands stopped battling against each other in a silent agreement made by their tongues meeting and he was very quickly driving his length into wetness as her hands pulled against his ass, the denim of his jeans still scraping the backs of her hands and his fingers cramping the thin fabric of her underwear aside. He could inhale the victoriously pleased and whimpered moan she gave up, his other hand clamping against the back of her neck so that he could dig their mouths tighter. Another dizzied whimper came off her as he rode his hips into hers and while it tasted like a sample of perfection, it didn't give him the oxygen he needed. When he broke his mouth from hers she was already urging him into a faster pace, regardless of how cramped they were pried against each other.

"Too bold." He rushed against her temple, feeling his breathing rattle as his lips dragged her sweated skin. "And so wet."

Her response was a bruising kiss against his lips, hands clamped up against his head in moaning as she dug her teeth against his tongue and scraped as he used his free hand to jerk her hips hard to the edge of the desk by the pull of her bunched skirt. The sinking sound she broke against his teeth had him damn near coming before he roughed his mouth away from hers and stared her down. His palm flattened the desk as he leaned her at a forced angle on ragged thrusts, the other fingers jerking tighter on fabric as he jerked tighter into wet welcoming heat. She didn't back down from the way he watched her eyelashes flutter down before rising again, her jaw lifting in a fashion so contrary he smiled into it.

"Y'don't own me." He barely shook his head into the shivered assertion.

His eyes shadowed as she tightened around him intentionally, her hands so softly guarding against his cheeks, covering scars that he'd momentarily forgotten, "That's a damn lie too."

"I know." He nodded the whisper into her lips, letting her ride her knee up along his hip as she drew him tighter forward on an angle, hands clasped against his jaw as he came hard and uncontrolled.

She let his head down, loosening the hold on his face so that he could break his forehead into her banked back shoulder as he shuddered into her, an aching sound shivering from his lungs. The smell of his leather and sweat and sex sent her a little cloudy as she leaned her head into his, letting him stay where he was as both his hands finally closed around her. The curl of his arms against her waist closed them tighter and his hips jutted sharply in sensitive response to the shifting as she let cramped legs lax against the edge of the desk. Her head banked back on her shoulders tiredly as he turned his face into her throat, kissing softly.

"If you'd just come over I wouldn't still have to drive to fall asleep."

"I'll drive." He hushed along the break of her ear.

Ally shrugged slowly into uncaring acceptance. "Uhkay."

The laugh he breathed against her clavicle was a damp heat on cooling skin, "You owe Lyla an apology for this mess on her desk."

She was smugly smiling with her eyes closed and head back when he looked up, stretching his spine as he slid from inside her, the shifting causing a wince over her face that he matched then soothed with hands stroking her thighs.

"I'll get right on that." Her eyes were brim full of coquette when she finally drew her jaw down. "Once I can feel my ass again."

"Lemme know when you're ready." Filip smirked into a chaste kiss, tucking his pants back closed with a twinge in eyes. "I'll take you home."

"Yeah, you will." She shunted off as she stretched back against the scattered paperwork, the heel of her palm rubbing along her forehead. "You owe me."

Fingertips brushed along her thigh lightly, making her tense up on a caged breath, "I do."

* * *

He knew she wasn't asleep because he could feel the way she was watching him, her eyes lidded low but still glinting in passing streetlights. She'd dropped her heels off into the well of the seat before even drawling into the passenger side. Her body was curled up smaller than usual, knees drawn up into her chest and upper body sidelong to the back of the seat in a position so nearly innocently curling that he couldn't not reach to touch it. She caught his fingers on the reaching and drew his hand between her legs and torso, fingering his rings as she continued to watch his profile.

"Was it your idea?" she asked softly into the quiet of the car.

"Was what?" he squinted against the flare of oncoming lights.

"Carreira's procession."

He shook it off quickly, "Doesn't matter."

"Does." She argued succinctly. "Because if it was yours, I can see why. If it was Teller's, I have to question it."

"Y'don't." he argued softly. "Regardless."

"I do." Her eyes were closed when he cast a glance at her, ready to argue the point she was attempting to lay upon him before he looked back to the road.

"Althea?" he tightened against her fingers, feeling her tighten back in a sleep weakened movement.

She still made a hemmed noise of questioning in her throat even though she didn't open her eyes.

He let it drop into the way her fingers laxed loose in his. "Just go to sleep. It doesn't matter."

"Does." Even as she tipped to sleep she was pulling and pushing.

And he just shook his head, smiling ruefully into the way she kept clutching his hand close.


	38. Chapter 38

He'd come to wait for it in the middle of the night. Because it had happened most every night since she'd settled a saving bullet six inches from his temple and lately she'd been too tired to fight over who got to fall asleep first. She'd find a way to puzzle piece them together in the center of her now familiar mattress, twining every bit of muscle so that when she startled herself awake from the nightmares he watched sift along her sleeping features, he was the one so inextricably wrapped around her. He was the one she gave the bad dreams to for safe keeping. And he wasn't so sure he could keep on carrying nightmares for the both of them. He had plenty of his own to shoulder without her gifting hers on him so innocently.

And the startled snap of her toned up body on his was the end of him carrying the double weight of guilt. She needed to shoulder her own in this and he was ready to settle it down on her. If she was going to be so assertively bold in claiming him as something she planned on keeping, then she'd have to have fortitude enough to keep on claiming. He wasn't about to let her go weakened on it. Not when he knew she could be methodical and conniving and confident in taking what she wanted. If she was out to own anything, she was damn well going to be sure and strong in it. She had to be in this place. Or they were both well and truly fucked.

"The first boy I killed was raised on the Strule. County Tyrone." He made sure that his jaw was angled up against the way she was burying her face against his throat, avoiding her eyes as his voice hummed quiet against her.

"Why are you telling me this?" she didn't move at first and he appreciated the very fact that as she tried to settle her breathing, she didn't try to look at him.

Because he wasn't sure he could tell her if she was looking right directly at him.

"He was a constable."

Her body startled again but this time she was in complete control of her shifting and she shunted her palm directly into the center of his chest, her shoulders stretching back even as their legs stayed tightly tangle between each other's. He left his hand curled up under her shirt but closed his fingers into his palm, the side of his fist pressing heat directly beneath her breasts to keep them blocked apart. The searching contempt on her face was sleep muddled but sharp enough to tell him that she was furious – so angry that he would deliberately break the peace between them. So betrayed by the reality of what they were versus what they wanted.

"Why would you tell me that?" Sadness cradled into her tone, eyes muddying up as she shook her head against the pillow. He hadn't realized her hand had been wrapped completely against his forearm until she loosened it from skin and wiped palm sweated confusion over her features.

"Because y'seem to think that killing a cop is beyond redemption for you." Chibs let his head lay sidelong on the corner of the pillow she'd allowed him in sleep, twining his voice softer and intentionally more patient as he saw realization discolor her eyes.

"I am a cop." Ally shunted off, intentionally rolling away from him and onto her back, forcing him to disengage most every touch, save for the fact she left one calf pressed tightly between his.

He'd expected that move much sooner and good on her for the waiting.

Self righteous, indignant, and all angry muscle under sweetened skin.

He wasn't about to let it go without levering her glance back to him, his fingers clipping at her jaw and jerking her angry eyes back his way. "And y'did your duty. Stop thrashin' yourself up about it."

"Filip"

"Dulane was a shit cop." He nodded tightly into his heavily accented argument, his face nearing hers in the leftover scent of mid-nightmares, "And that boy I killed was Ulster through and through, Ally. He was shit too."

"I have no idea what you're talking about." She shook off his argument but blinked into the way he slanted a glare of disbelief over her, "Don't act like it didn't have an affect on you."

"Damn near lost my mind."

"Then don't be a hypocrite." There was a defensive petulance in her tone as she scrabbled her body up and back against the wall, spine angling against the low headboard so that she could draw her knees into wrapping arms.

"Me bein' a hypocrite?" he studied the drawn bend of her legs as a wry smile of defensive weariness waned his lips. "Christ, woman… You're takin' the prize."

Her silent glare gave him the time he needed to shake his head into patience, breathing in through his nose while his hand lifted, a fingertip tracing down a pronounced shin bone.

"We're evening up, love. Finding middle ground." Filip lifted his glance as he let his palm wrap her ankle, watching the way she stared straight ahead into his assertion. "You can hate it much as you like but it's coming round and you need to find your peace or it'll get one of us buried. It doesn't matter that he was a shit cop, because he wasn't a good man in total. He was sick and twisted up and a junkie, Ally. You did that boy a service."

He watched her suck against her teeth and she shook her head slowly back and forth, her cheekbones awfully pronounced in the shadowed light from the bathroom. "I cannot believe that, of all people, you're going to judge a man good or bad."

"Me of all people?" his fist reflexively curled tighter on her ankle.

"You're a murderer." That strength that had been in her eyes hours earlier, that crystalline clear knowing he'd found on her – it was glinting true again.

It was laying low an unfortunate truth between them.

At least she'd finally dropped it ugly bare between them.

Because it'd been cancerous dark for long enough.

"Aye." Contempt in the face of reality bred a feral smile to his lips and it laid his scars heavier than she'd seen them since he'd near killed a man in front of her. "And so are you, darlin'."

He truly didn't enjoy making her hurt.

But the distasteful cost of their balance had finally been paid.

"And that's the real problem here, yeah?" He whispered the question as he shifted himself up, dragging a palm against her leg as he angled sharply up into her side and leaned the truth on her ear so that she couldn't avoid facing it anymore. "Because y'could have shot that boy in the head in the middle of the sunny street if it hadn't been for me. But you did it for me. So it was in the dark and it was dirty and it brought you down to my level."

Ally shook her head tightly, eyes still centered forward and away from him, "I've never - "

"At least down here, where I live, we're fuckin' honest with ourselves about who we are."

"Bullshit." Her shoulder shunted up and away from his leaning, her body angling toward the edge of the bed as she pulled from his touch and put space between them, her shoulders tensed and legs dropped. "None of you are honest with yourselves. Or each other. You and I trade little lies all day long but it's Teller who deceives your loyalty."

"Don't you dare." His voice caved into a threatening drag of disdain and it just barely preceded the hedging of his fingers braced on the back of her neck, hair pressed warm between skin and palm.

"Why?" She leaned back into the pull of his palm, letting him jerk her into his chest as he pressed up and forward, blankly repeating his question back, "Because that's the real problem here, yeah?"

"You know nothing." Telford's voice was a slaying hiss along her ear and it tingled a rise of both fear and unexplainable faith along her spine. "I tell you nothing."

She'd expected more anger, more force for the proverbial slap she'd given this time.

She'd temporarily, and stupidly, forgotten that his internal control was always in the shifting of his hands.

"You can't lie to me while you're fucking me, Filip. Not while you're inside me." Ally finally turned her head into meeting his eyes and found them blanked so dark that she could only see the light of reflection in them. "But he screws you over and over again. He gets in your head and twists you up. Who's the good man now?"

The usually pretty angles of her face were downright mutinous. And drawing desperate.

"You're jealous of the boy." He surmised slowly, watching her eyes widen up as he spoke, his jaw angled so that he could crown over her, hand still braced on her neck to down her rebellion.

"You're goddamn right I am." The threat of truthful tears on her was the only thing that could have loosened his hand the way it did, and she damn well knew it too. "You will always choose him. You love him."

"I do." He admitted with a grace that she hadn't expected, his eyes finally showing some softer color as he shook his head, "You gonna let that be what breaks us, Althea? When we could have a chance to make something out of this?"

"I don't know."

"Gutless." Filip leveled his whisper so tightly along her ear that it terrified her more than the weight of his hand at her head, "You're puttin' the match to the powder keg, love. It's not on me. Y'don't search out the things that crash and burn. Y'light the fires yourself just to watch 'em go."

Her shoulders didn't flinch into the accusation and she didn't make a movement to argue with his assumption. And that writhed more anger on him. Because she should have wanted to fight back on that, and it made him too true nervous that she didn't.

"Coward." He hissed into the back of her head.

"I'm a coward, Vice President?" The snapped up anger of her answer was clear in the sudden sharp angling of her jaw back in his direction and he watched it glow on her pale skin like kindling taking light, giving him the response he'd wanted. "You can't even bring yourself to corral the man you love like a son while he burns up your entire fucking world."

"Too far, Althea." His hand was a righteous warning against her words, suddenly gripping so tightly into her hair that she bit down into the tweak of pain in her scalp as her head levered back.

But she let him drag her head back. Let him jerk his frustration and fury into the darkness of her hair. Because then, at least, he still hadn't let go. He was just digging in tighter and somehow hooking closer. And she could make that be enough for awhile. She could hold onto that tether until this came back around again.

"Too true, Filip." She whispered a finality back him as she angled her head into the way he'd prized her hair in his fisted fingers. "He's gonna make you choose, Scotty. Not me."

"Ally." The shunting of her name down her collarbone should have made her stop but he'd once told her that she had no compass for bad ideas. And she'd steer straight into this one if it could force some ounce of truth between them.

"Not me. That's your answer." She told him tightly. "When he makes you decide. It's not me."

"Stop."

She didn't know that he'd ever begged for anything from her. But it almost sounded like he was.

"Please, Cu Sith?" Had he not known that his good mood was going to nosedive into a bloody mountain? "Just stop."

"But I chose you, Telford." Her head laid into his slowly and he was wrackingly surprised by the slow movement, forehead driving tighter down on her shoulder. "So I guess it really doesn't matter."

* * *

"Chibs know you're here, Lieutenant?"

"No." Ally shook her head slowly, letting her eyes drift along the way he had a sleeping toddler cradled into his bare shoulder as he held the door wedged half open. "He doesn't."

"Shouldn't he?" Teller asked into an intentionally darkened accusation.

"No." Ally let her eyes drift back over the boy with a softness. "He shouldn't."

Jax nodded slowly into a layer of understanding that made his eyes wiser, "This… it's been brewin' for awhile, here."

"I know." She nodded as exhaled and let her shoulders drop, turning out every inch of defensive posture from her body, intentionally loosening as she looked over his face. "I just… we need to talk. Just talk. No power trips. No bullshit, Teller."

"Yeah." He finally stepped back to let the door swing wider. "Not yet, though. Lemme see if Wendy can watch the boys."

"I can wait." She nodded into agreement, letting her arms curl against the tank she was wearing.

"You can come in." he cocked her a disdainful glance from a step down the hall. "I'm not gonna threaten you in front of my kids, Jarry."


	39. Chapter 39

"You look about as tired as he did this morning." Teller's voice was muffled as he dragged a shirt over his head, steps light as he moved toward the opposite side of the kitchen table. "Rough night, Sheriff?"

"Sort of." She didn't actually care to fake anything with him. Not in the middle of his kitchen with his kid's leftover cereal milk souring on the table, bits of Fruity Pebbles staining it a muddy pink.

"You're not wearing your piece." He sat slowly, his glance intentionally scrutinizing as he searched over the way she was standing curled into herself, waving toward the opposite chair.

"Thought it would send the wrong message." She pulled the chair back from the table, drawing it away from the way he was leaning forward so that she could keep skated back as she sat. "He's already been here?"

"We had a few things to discuss." Jax studied her a quiet moment before nodding, waving his fingers toward the coffee pot on the counter, head cocked into a silent offering.

Ally studied the looseness of his shoulders as he shifted them up in questioning and she leaned forward a little in the chair, watching the turn of blue eyes over her movement. She inhaled into the push up from the chair and turned her back open to him, barely catching the down of his brow as he watched her openly move from the chair and toward the counter, fingers slowly cautious as she pulled a still damp mug from the drainer. She was waiting for a cut down, in so very many ways.

But she was damn tired of waiting for it.

It was making her bed cold in the morning when she should have been allowed to curl into the spiced smell of aftershave and smoke and leftover leathered sweat.

If it was coming her way, she was gonna draw the fire.

"You and I have a few things to discuss too, Mr Teller." She poured her own cup of coffee and turned her hips back into his counter, waiting to watch his response to how welcome she'd made herself in the middle of his kitchen.

He'd cocked in the chair and showed her no tells, elbow to the table and head to his hand. "Such as?"

She took a swallow of dark bitterness, figurative and literal, head cocked at a sad angle as she studied the trace of amusement in his eyes, "You win."

Distaste angled his long features as he slackened back into the chair, letting half his body lay harder into the table top as he stared at her. His hand dropped to pick up the pack of cigarettes, blinking as he pulled one and offered her the pack. She normally wouldn't have taken him up on the offer but she angled off the counter slowly, pulling one from the pack in the wash of his surprise. She caught against the lighter faster than he did, the hand with the coffee drawn aside as she clipped up the flame, questioning cocked into the way her body was angled into him.

Jax gave her a discerning glance before leaning the cigarette into the flame and letting it burn, flaring it as he leaned away and watched her light her own. The plastic lighter clattered back to the table and he watched the way the tight inhale brought her shoulders back as she caught the cup in the same hand and stepped away. She skirted back to her chair, fingers trailing around the bowl that was still sitting at the end of the table.

"Win what, Sheriff?" he asked as he swallowed smoke, his shoulders a sudden wire tight line beneath the white t-shirt.

"You know what you conniving little bastard." She let the mug clap to the table hard, nearly sloshing the contents into wood as she stood beside the empty chair on a ragged edging of emotion. "Jesus Christ."

"He's not a fucking prize, Jarry."

"He's not your goddamn pet, either." Her face was damn near as white pale as his shirt and he let his tongue ride his bottom lip in annoyance.

"I'm not doin' this." He shook his head in tight negation, roughly flicking ash into the tray that was even between them. "I got bigger problems than you, Lieutenant. You need to get your priorities straightened out."

"I am." She flicked back over him tightly as she dropped the unwanted cigarette into the coffee, hips angling as she laid both palms onto the flat of the table. "I want Charming and I want him."

His jaw caught on a twitch and he leaned forward into the dusted rattle of her tone, eyeing how serious she was, "But?"

"But I won't ever have all of him." She caught his eyes follow the movement of her hair as she shook her head just a moment before his blue eyes trapped on hers again. "And I can't have all of Charming. Because of the club."

"Club's not going anywhere." He leveled into her.

"Neither am I." she flicked a glance over his face, feeling heat crawl up her throat. "Am I, Teller?"

The sudden grazed laugh of disdain he let between them was hazed in smoke, "You're so off the mark. You think I want you dead? I helped save your ass."

His jaw was wiring again as his tongue ran his teeth, head shaking his glance to the side. She watched a rapid flux of emotions twist over his features before his face hardened. He sniffed before sucking down another drag and jerkily stubbing out the cigarette he'd barely really taken into his lungs. Teller pushed back off the table and let his shoulders slacken into the chair, hands lifted as he stared at her in an openly questioning silence. He was giving her a lead of sorts, face all shaded angles and anger.

"I can't… none of this works if you don't work with me." She finally murmured quietly over the table, letting her body sink back into the chair on a level of unflinching desperation that she could very well taste in her throat. "I know you don't trust me and I sure as hell don't trust you. Trust him. He's never been disloyal to you, Jax. You win."

He shaded a glance down the table before light lashes brought another rise of blue eyes in her direction. "I need him."

"So do I." she admitted in a guttered softness that broke her to admit. "But he loves you, not me. He loves his club, not me."

Teller gave her a huffed breath of sardonic laugher as he shook his head, "It's what he is, Jarry. You've been here five minutes in comparison."

"I want him and I want Charming." She repeated softly, laying her voice low.

"I feel like we've been here before." He murmured off, head turning into the way his oldest son stepped into the room sleepily, a hand stretching off the table as he laxed his body farther back in the chair and more relaxed. "Hey, buddy."

She watched Able leaned into the pressing of his father's open palm, putting his weight into the way that Jax stretched his shoulders and angled enough to draw him curled around into his lap. The boy's eyes focused on her briefly before his head dropped back against Teller's chest and she exhaled slowly into the way the man let his jaw draw along the blonde of the boy's hair.

"You've been here for five minutes of a hundred years, Lieutenant." He murmured over the child's head. "You read your reports, your files. RICO and the Fed reports? But that information gives you nothing. Not when it comes to him sitting at the table beside his brothers."

"He really doesn't tell me anything, Jax." She hushed down, her head angling into the way Abel was sleepily watching her with wary eyes. "The choke hold is unnecessary."

He flicked her a look of darkening blue over his son's head, "You have no idea what is or isn't necessary right now, Sheriff."

"Because he tells me nothing." She thrummed the whisper tighter into the table, catching the way Jax's hand wiped his hand along his son's hair, the rings he was wearing lifted lightly from sifting blonde. "And I don't want him to."

There was a twisting of cautious curiosity in his eyes as his jaw rode the top of his son's head again and she stayed still to where she was, watching the movement as he calculated the risk of whether he wanted to step forward into the subtly played implication. Jax breathed in through his nose as his hands shifted under his son's arms, lifting the boy from his lap and to the floor. Abel gave him an obviously glaring pout but wandered away and back toward the living room as the man quietly told him to find Wendy. The glide of his eyes back to hers was inherently threatening, the blue color crystallizing as his head angled.

"Talk."

"I want him." She repeated once again, keeping it just as soft, but threading thick. "And I want quiet in Charming. I don't need anything else."

"You tellin' me you're gonna turn a blind eye to all the bullshit that could cut your career golden inside of five years?" his smile was suddenly lining predatory. "For dick? You're not that kind, Jarry. You want it too much."

"I'm a County Sheriff, Teller." She snorted into his accusation. "This is the head of the line for a uniform. I ride that desk until I retire. Or get shot."

"Naw," he grinned into it darkly, "plenty other desks you could leverage into. Chief of Police? County commissioner? Council seats too."

"Not likely, considering the dick in question." She sharpened over the table with a cocked glance of disbelief. "Is it? Pretty sure that wouldn't play all that well under public scrutiny. Patterson finds out and she could bury me if she wanted to."

"But - "

"But," she let her hand flatten along the table, "it's not like you boys are above playing ball with the suits, either. Is it? So what if I do? It doesn't necessarily have to change anything."

"And what exactly wouldn't it change?" he asked into a leveled softness. "You and I already have a deal. You got nothing else to offer."

"The more power I have, the more leverage you get. Besides…" Ally kept the quietness they'd balanced between them, and shored her shoulders just as tight as his. "you think I can't make your life a whole new sort of hell, Teller?"

"So much for not wanting to send the wrong message." He responded into a sardonic blankness.

Her glance shied unintentionally toward the sink and she felt him flinch tighter into the table on the movement, her eyes riding sharply back to his, "I can also make your life a Sunday walk in the goddamn sunny park."

The breaking moment between them was pressing her lungs still and keeping his hands tight held to the table and she thought, for a moment, that she'd imagined the suddenly bright eyed smile that preceded his breathy chuckle, "You been spendin' too much time with Chibs."

A flushing smile flared on her as she angled her head away, letting her tongue skate against her lips as she dropped her glance to the floor, "You and I have to make this work, Jax. Or we'll ruin what's good in him."

"I know." He was chewing thoughtfully against the inside of his cheek as he nabbed at the pack of cigarettes again, shunting his shoulders into the chair back as he shrugged up a tensed smile. "Let's deal, Lieutenant."


	40. Chapter 40

She'd left it alone for a day or so, taken her hands from the game after laying cards to the table that she hadn't necessarily wanted to play. And she'd bowed out quietly, leaving Teller to his morning with his boys. Leaving the uncertainty that Telford had left on her mattress laying there in a chill that had her sleeping patterns more uncomfortable than she'd like to admit. But she'd let it go soft anyhow, know that pushing and pulling on him again was just going to drag him weary. He had the precious possibilities of an infinite patience – they were just sometimes table flipped by a stock of passionate instability that she found infuriatingly attractive. His hold-hold-hold of control was just as intense as the movements of his hands when he let the snapping break into fury or fight or even fear.

He'd made it clear before that he had his limits. And she knew where the line between pushing on his patience and pulling on his passion was… So she'd drawn quiet. And she'd let him break that quiet.

"I just don't know what to do with you, Althea." There was enough tease in his tone over the line that she let her shoulders ease in their penned tension, regardless of how tired and breathy he sounded.

"You've never been at a loss before, Scotty." Her head dropped back into her chair, boot heel edging the corner of her desk so that she could spin it away from the door, cell tucked into her ear tightly. "Losing your creative streak?"

There was a coughed sound of laughter echoing over the phone, "You're the artist, love. Some of our best collaborations have been yours."

"Some." She couldn't help matching the smile that was riding his voice.

"Making table time with Jackie Boy wasn't a blue ribbon winner." The sloping whisper of his accent hazed quieter. "Y'don't know what you're doin', Ally."

"I know exactly what I'm doing, Filip." Her tone went drawn tight. "Don't get in my way."

His laughter warmed the line again, a heat in the sound that she found a sudden craving for, "Got a minute?"

"I can." She tipped the chair back, eyes dipped closed. "You should be more angry with me than you sound."

"I'm plenty angry." He sighed off with a heavy exhalation over the line. "Doesn't mean I can't enjoy lookin' at you awhile."

Her eyes flicked open and instantly narrowed, "This is business, isn't it?"

"A bit." There was a firm quickness to his tone. "Doesn't mean I can't - "

"Cut the bullshit, Scotty." Her voice broke his tone down.

"There's my girl. I've missed her some." That same damn heat curled up low into her stomach. "Garage in twenty, yeah?"

She rolled her eyes and enjoyed hanging up on him.

* * *

Reality said that she should probably just stop looking at him when he had the bike parked anywhere within a few miles. The very stretch of his denim clad legs always became a problem that she couldn't seem to ignore. Ally pulled from the car slowly, ignoring the fact that he watched her movements intently, even as he dragged off a half finished cigarette. She cocked her head questioningly into the fact that he was alone. The very solitude a surprise in the setting.

"I'm really starting to hate this place." She told him, voice drawling toward annoyance.

The grin that dimpled his scars was searing on her, "I love this place."

"You would." She cocked back at him tightly, letting her hands lay her hips as she stepped into the side of the bike, keeping enough distance that she could lay a low glance over the way one booted foot was cocked up higher than the other. "You're sadistic."

"I'm not, generally." His head angled his eyes over her slowly and she let her shoulders tighten back reflexively as his head stayed dipped down but his eyes lifted at her boyishly. "Unless it's mutual."

"Stop it."

Another grin tipped his lips as his gloved hand lifted into tugging along her belt, wrist tightening under her catching hand as he pulled her closer into the smell of smoke and gritted road dust, "Stop what?"

Ally let her glance graze over his muddied eyes before studying how tired the lines of his face were, "Stop being infuriating."

"Y'know what's infuriating, Althea?" he lifted his jaw into the way her eyes glinted along his as she crowned an almost aching look down over him. "Finding out you've been shakin' hands with Teller b'hind my back."

"Pot meets kettle in a parking garage." She played a careful gambit and laid her lips against his, unable to keep from smiling as he lifted his head sharply and called her bet for a sweetened kiss.

"What do you need?" she wasn't surprised by the fact that her fingers were already tracing along leather.

She was surprised that he'd clipped his leg up higher to block her from the still hot bike, his hand guidingly pulling her weight into his jacked up knee.

"A great many things." His eyes were a softer brown than they had been. "You run all the prints from Carreira's place?"

Ally cocked her head sidelong, "Of course I did."

"Pull Dulane?" he squinted a cocked glance up at her.

"A few." Her shoulders lifted. "Not many. Why?"

"Pull anybody with a record?"

"No. Nobody out of the ordinary. His ex. His kid. Couple of the other guys." she exhaled slowly into the warmth of his closeness. "You don't think it was Nick?"

His face wrecked toward frustration, "Don't like the lack of evidence."

"Me either." She admitted quietly. "You told me it didn't matter. I'm letting my guys run scenarios and waiting out the clock. You told me not to worry about it."

"So don't." Chibs flicked her a smile that seemed too easily made. "Let me worry about it."

Her breathing flared toward annoyance, "This you asking or Teller?"

"Ah," he tugged her a little tighter, jaw lifted into a darkened accusation, "after the stunt you just pulled? That's a question y'don't get to ask for a long while, understood Lieutenant?"

Ally just pressed the heels of her palms into his shoulders to draw back but the catching pull of his hand on her belt jerked her back into the lift of his knee.

"Don't go yet." He winked at her before lifting his jaw higher toward hers, letting his glance ride along her lips. "I'm not done."

"Why are you riding alone?" she questioned into the way he was taking small kisses off her, letting her lay the words on his lips between touches.

"Not." He cocked his head back as his shoulders laxed and his back curved, stretching himself on the seat of the bike. "Tiggy's at the other gate. Not at all happy."

"Well, he misses me." She teased at him with a half smile.

He flinched her a warning squint that was half tinted in humor and half braced with a lay of jealousy, "Yeah? Which part? The way you slap the shit out of 'im in your sleep? Or the whiskey in your coffee?"

"I do not." She jammed her knuckles into his chest.

"Y'do at night." He argued playfully as he tugged her back in closer. "And y'smell like vanilla all the goddamn day. That's infuriating."

Ally let a searching look over his face, "It's not gonna work."

"Already has." His smirk saved the fact that he loosened his fingers and wiped them along her stomach. "Eleven?"

She stepped back slowly on a nod, "Little after."

"I know." The stillness of him was an intentional cue, and she let him watch her walk back to the car, shaking her head smiling into the way he half turned into guarding he way she drove away.


	41. Chapter 41

He could have pretended, for a briefly breathing moment, that domesticity was an acceptable reality in his life and that studying the sidelong curl of her body on a soft mattress was a costless indulgence. He could have. If he didn't have blood on his hands. Quite literally. Because it would have been easier to be the man who came home a tip-toe late from the bar than the man who entered her space bringing leftover mayhem on his fingers. Easier, sure, and it wouldn't shine her eyes quite so glassy dark as she watched him cut straight for her attached bathroom.

"You're late."

"Aye." He shunted the bathroom door open with his boot, waiting until he'd blocked his shoulders toward her before skimming his gloves from his hands. "I know."

"Points deducted for not doing that in the kitchen, Telford." Her voice carried cutting from the bedroom and his winced his eyes shut as his hands burned under scalding water, fingers stretching out in blotched redness.

"Suddenly y'want me to hide what I am? Sweet Christ, woman. Sort it out." he felt his words go sharp as he angled his jaw down tightly, "I'd get just as much hell for doin' it in the kitchen. Don't start in it, darlin'."

His hips jolted into the way she'd managed to silently step into the back of him, the hush of bare feet quieted by the jangling of his nerves and the rush of hot water. Chibs lifted his head sharply, catching the way she was intently studying him from behind as her hands braced flat to the back of his cut. He watched her searching a moment before letting his glance drop, scrubbing the soap into his hands as he avoided the fact that concern was the color in her eyes.

"The level of sexy Scottish bastard rises in proportion to the output of violence." Her words trailed against his shoulders as she leaned into his back, palms still flat flush to his shoulders. "There's something wrong with me, Scotty. I have serious issues."

He didn't know whether to laugh into the tired truth to her tone or feel ashamed by its implication. Either way, she was still laying long into his back as he rinsed his hands and shut the water off, damp palms curling the sink as he let his weight forward on bent shoulders. She shifted with him, and he closed his eyes into the way she wrapped against him so sweetly that just closing his eyes momentarily obliterated the hours before.

Momentarily, at least.

"Filip." Her hand sloped forward of his chest slowly on a tentative tone that drew his eyes open, thin wrist palely bared and fingers wiping together with the grease of blood before them.

He closed his palm over hers tightly on a brackish swallow, feeling his body take a farther sway forward before he roughed a turn into her, the other hand keeping her stayed back a step from his frame as he backed her across the bathroom.

"Is it yours?" Her voice went a little caustic and echoed toward manically blank as she looked over their linked hands.

Chibs jerked his head tightly. "No."

"Filip?"

"No." he repeated roughly and shunted her back toward the shower, her fingers still wrapped into his palm as he leaned past her to slap the water on, keeping her otherwise separate from him. "In."

Her eyes were widely scattered as he finally caught sight of them. "It's fine. Just - "

"Althea? Please?" The twisted pleading he laid over her was a softer whisper than she'd expected and she let him step her back into the shower, regardless of the fact she was still wearing a t-shirt.

* * *

The dragging darkness that was shadowing below his eyes had managed to obliterate any good humor he'd teased into her earlier in the day. Which she plainly accepted, quietly wiping the length of wet hair back off his face as she looked over him in an agreement of silence, her body tipped sidelong against the outstretch of his. There was a twined length of discordant frustration down the line of his spine, head turned away from her even as his arm was curled up under the way she was leaned into the side of his chest. He had two fingers twisted into the ends of her hair, letting his wrist lag loose by the knotted hold of its darkness. His other hand was riding against his temple, fingers rubbing hard into skin as she looked over him.

"Just sleep, Telford." Ally dropped her jaw into his shoulder, shying her palm down the side of his damp head before letting her fingers splay flat onto his chest. "You're exhausted."

"It's Marks." He finally turned the words over her, eyes thinly weary as he twined wet hair around his fingers. "Fronted the pay off."

Ally lifted her jaw knowingly into the admittance, her eyes sheening toward a sort of prized appreciation for the information. "Good."

"Good?" he snorted off in derision. "Proud of y'self, huh lass?"

"My father used to tell me that if angry men are shooting at you, you must be doing something right." She whispered her lips along bare and water cooled skin.

"I'm terrified to know what else your father may've taught you, Lieutenant." He finally let a smile ride his lips as he banked his head back on the pillow, hand catching along the back of her head to pull her tighter down onto his shoulder.

She drew her leg up against him, letting his hand crown against the back of her head, "I can safe crack."

"Bullshit." He breathed out into half laughter.

"Is it?" Her smile was pressing heat into his chest, "Combination gate, lever, wheel, drive."

"Jesus." He was turning and treading laughter into her hair

"Lock bolt, lock screw, relocker." Ally lifted a smile at him and winked, smirking wider into the way he traded out a full laugh and let his head back onto the pillow.

The slowly angled way he turned his head toward her studying glance was both lightly troubling to her, and softly sweet. He was looking over her face with a sudden new sort of searching, face lax as he studied her as an almost stranger. Multiple emotions flickered over his eyes and twitched his jaw, his forehead. His other hand swept quickly up and over his chest so that he could cage up against her jaw, palm lifting it up while the other hand backed her skull and kept her head pried up still in his hands.

"Makin' deals with the Reaper?" He whispered in a sadly hushed tone. "It only ever circles back to the same place. You - "

"I know what I'm doing." She repeated succinctly, intentionally drowning his concern with a surplus of force even as his fingers tightened on her. "Don't question me."

"What are you doing?" the lay of his accent went a little low as he intentionally dragged the question between them, ignoring her assertion. "You're hangin' everything you've got on a pin, Cu Sith. What if it doesn't hold?"

"You'll catch it." She forced him to shift his hand by driving her jaw down, rubbing her lips into the center of his palm.

Chibs winced into the surety of her response. "Y'don't know that."

"But I do." She argued softly, kissing into the way he turned his fingers over her lips, the other hand fisting into her hair as he rolled her flush, intentionally drawing over the slimmer stretch of her as he pushed her head back into the pillow.

She purposefully arched into the full press of him as he laid down against her, his elbows carrying weight into the mattress as he finally untangled from her hair and sloped a palm down to lift her leg against his hip. The run of his fingers on the back of her thigh was so carefully tentative that she stilled up beneath him, watching the intent and purposefully slow run of his movements. He'd traded into an unhurried and methodical caution that teased her nerves and made her twitchy with attention. It was far forward of heart-weakly intimate. And terrifyingly personal in comparison to the way he generally moved against her. He was always and ever capable of gentleness, even while being doubly capable of the violent opposite. And he'd used that softness often enough with her.

But the obvious affectionate acceptance in his eyes was a sudden and rattling newcomer that tingled on their skin-to-skin.

And the fact that he shyly ducked his mouth between her breasts as his shoulders lowered told her that he knew she'd seen it come between them. His hips rode hard into hers in a persistent urging that told her that he wasn't going to listen to her softened offerings of an easy sleep. Which was fine with her - because the tentative tenderness he was giving her was flushing her warm.

"Are we even yet, Filip?" she asked as her palm sloped flat to the center of his shoulder blades, letting her breathing sigh off as she watched his mouth cradle down the line of her sternum.

"No." he brushed the words up her collarbone on a tone that seemed biting as he lifted his head over hers. "Never really plan to be. I like y'where you are. No need to aim lower."

"Stop it." Her palms caught tightly against cheeks, drawing his mouth to hers for a slow kiss that she felt more than heard him groan into, the touch of it along her tongue.

She smiled into his lips as he growled the kiss deeper, angling his head to skiff his tongue on her teeth as his body rose up over hers, the tautened muscles of one arm at her side while his other palm rode her thigh higher on his hip, letting her match the other so that she could close against him.

"Marks kills his own, darlin'." He raked the words down her throat before nipping his teeth on soft skin, fingers leaving her leg to slide tightly between them. "He has no remorse. No limit."

"Not acceptable pillow talk, Scotty." she groaned her head back as his fingers drove hard between her legs, thumb rounding her clit while he watched her lashes land along her cheeks.

"Listen." He whispered against her jaw as he slid a finger into her and the slip of wetness, eyes dipped closed as she reflexively tightened down against his palm, "I have your attention, love?"

Her hissed and annoyed assent brought a smile on him as he kissed against her cheek.

"He and Pope took Tig's daughter away right in front of him." He wiped the words along her cheek, drawing his finger slowly from dampness before driving it hard back into her, listening to the softened sound she made on his ear as he tapped his thumb against her clit. Her breathing caught up into his neck as she dug her nails biting into his arm.

"He can't have you." He laid it low along the crest of her ear and it brought a moan off her lungs that sharply preceded her arms dragging his shoulders for leverage to lift into his hand for more. Her frame shivering into the way he slid another finger into her silent pleading.

"Christ, you're a charming son of a bitch." Ally dug tighter on his shoulders, flicking her glance to his as he chuckled his head back over hers, still damp hair tipping forward to trace along his scars.

"Admit it." His lips whispered on hers. "Broke you a little."

One hand lifted from his shoulder to catch his head still. "You mean it?"

Chibs gave her a sidelong glance, jaw tipping into her hand as he kept his eyes to hers and kissed against the ridge of her thumb. "I tend t'mean the things I say when I've got my fingers this far up a - "

"Telford." She sharpened a smirk at him.

"I mean it." He kissed her palm with the same slow softness she'd used in the earlier reverse.

"Then, yeah." She smiled as her finger traced the length of one scar, her legs tightening on him as she bore down on his fingers. "Sorta."

He wiped against her clit with his thumb, smiling a kiss onto her, "I could tell."

Ally let her head drop back on a frustrated noise, eyes driven closed while she let her tongue rake her lips, "There's something seriously wrong with me."

"No." He teased as he dragged his mouth down her throat, fingers sliding from inside her so that both palms braced the bed at her sides as he jacked his hips into hers, forcing her knees to ride higher. "I don't see anything wrong with what I'm lookin' at. A wanting woman is a glorious thing."

"Fuck you, Telford."

"Manners, Althea." He grinned his mouth down onto hers again, speaking into kissing. "Or y'won't."

She just smiled into the way he pressed back down onto her, "Liar."


	42. Chapter 42

"Jesus Christ, Trager." She sucked against the taste of leftover toothpaste, a palm shunted to the corner of the kitchen counter as she'd rounded into it, her lungs caught up in her throat. "What the hell are you doing?"

"Toast." He nodded quickly as he used a the toe of one boot to kick one of her bottom cupboards closed, head lifting on a smirk that slowly canted his head to the side as he studied her, brows lifting, "Good morning, Lieutenant."

Ally glared sharply into the way his eyes banked fully down the length of a black button down shirt and very bare legs, a smirk twitching against the corner of his mouth as he blew out a whistling breath. "Eyes front, Tig."

"I'm on the front." He cast a sparked glance down the way the shirt was open farther down than it was closed up against freshly scrubbed skin.

She ignored the taunting and mischievous smile that was curling his lips as he leaned lanky hips back against the counter and watched her move toward the coffee pot, a sighed appreciation banking off her as she realized it was already steaming full. He was very obviously making a leering show of teasing on her and she accepted the playful smirking he gave up as he handed her a mug from her own strainer. He had a dish towel over his shoulder and his cut was slung to the back of one chair.

"This is not acceptable." Ally murmured annoyance into the way she poured the cup, lifting it into her chest with both hands as the smell traced her toward waking, her hair still laying damp against her shoulders.

"Too strong?" he glanced at the pot and back.

"No, I meant you being in my kitchen without me knowing." She slapped perfunctorily between them, embattled between finding him somewhat awkwardly adorable and still being annoyed that he'd invaded her home just to be a pain in the ass.

"VP's not ridin' alone today." He shrugged off, tone brooking no argument between them. "It's perfectly acceptable."

"How did you even get in?"

"How did you not hear me?" he snorted back, "Some cop you are."

Ally lifted a low lidded glance, letting a smile writhe her lips as she leaned toward him teasingly, "I was very very distracted."

"Gah." Tig lifted his hand as he pushed away from the counter and headed toward the table, grinning back wildly as he banked into the chair, "Naw, go ahead. Tell me. I wanna hear."

"To be fair," Chibs' voice was a soft intrusion as he moved into the kitchen, roughing his wet hair back off his forehead as he tiredly balanced a glance between them. "She had her hands full."

"Just her hands?" Trager asked up playfully, using his boots against the table legs to tilt the chair back on an angle. "You're slackin', Chibby."

"Among other things." The other man shunted his denim covered knee into the back of the chair, slamming it back forward as Trager's boots flattened to the floor and his laughter coughed off his chest.

"You two are deplorable." She waved her coffee between them, squinting a curbed annoyance in the Scot's direction as he prowled toward her, his hands breaking to the counter at her sides as he intentionally flushed up into the front of her.

"I didn't tell him what other things." He teased against her, keeping her coffee blocked up into her chest as he broke his mouth against hers, hands catching up against the dark fabric of the shirt as he tucked tighter down the front of her.

She caught against his fingers tightly, swallowing his laughter as she kept him from prying the shirt hem any higher in front of the other man. "Deplorable."

"You're gonna hurt his feelings." He smiled warmly over her as he cocked his head back toward Trager, pinching lightly against a tensed thigh before moving toward the coffee pot. "Be kind."

"Did you know she has a Ruger hidden on top of the fridge?" Tig waved toward Telford in surprise. "That's damn sketchy."

Ally pinned him a harsh glance. "You searched my kitchen? Not acceptable."

"Ally." Chibs rolled her a plaintive glance, voice treading a softened pleading as he lifted his coffee. "He's watchin' you just as much as he's watchin' me."

"More so, actually." She cocked a derogatory glance into the way Trager threaded laughter throughout the kitchen before turning her glance back over the Scot, face composed toward assertion. "I am not comfortable with this, Filip."

His cup rounded back onto the counter with a clipped thud as he turned his head toward her, eyes glittering dark. "And I'm not comfortable with August Marks puttin' a target on our backs, Althea. But I'm dealin' with it. Whattcha want? Y'want him to leave? Because he goes when I go. And I can go any time you like, love."

He knew he'd clipped a nerve on her when her jaw tightened down and her shoulders came up and damn him if he didn't like to watch the way it tensed up every muscle under the dusty black of his own softly worn shirt.

"Obviously," she leaned the low grated whisper into his shoulder as she stepped along his back, "it seems I've got an open goddamn door. So feel free."

He fluttered his eyes closed into the wreckage of her anger, sucking against his teeth as he turned into the way she walked from the kitchen. Chibs backed his hips into the counter, lifting the coffee he'd temporarily forgotten as he caught the half concerned and partly amused smirk Trager was panning him from the kitchen table.

"Looks like you're the one with your hands full, Chibby." Tig hushed between them, glancing toward the hall and then back. "You got a handle on this, brother? Really?"

Chibs blew out a slow breath before taking a sip of coffee on a shrug. "She'll be fine. Let her breathe. She gives a good slap and then soothes it. Just her way."

"Sounds like another sorta hands on woman we know."

"Don't go there." The full roll of the accent was hazed in coffee steam. "I don't wanna hear it."

"Uhkay." Tig grinned into it as he let his arms ride onto the table, shoulders forward as he lifted his jaw into questioning. "So you knew about the Ruger?"

The Scot just grinned over the cup, "Y'think that's the only one, Tigger?"

"Man, I like her." Tig lifted his hands off the table in exasperation. "Why's she gotta be a cop? It really ruins the flow of so many perfect possibilities. "

Chibs smirked into his cup, "Because she's contrary."

* * *

He caught against her fingers lightly, prying them down from the way she was pulling her hair up, his other hand shading along the back of her head so that the chestnut darkness went down under his ringed fingers. The tightening of her back was so harshly drawn up that he let the movements go slow and soft, palms catching onto the dark blue fabric of the uniform and holding against her ribs as he dropped his face into the still damp smell of freshly shampooed hair.

"Y'can't have me without the club, Ally." He told her softly. "And regardless of me, if you're dealin' with the club, y'deal with the club. That's what comes of wading this far in, Lieutenant. And that was your move, not mine."

"Just," her shoulders reflexively lifted into the way he was pressing on her, hand catching up against his jaw to keep him from shifting away. "let me accept it. It's gonna take awhile to adjust, okay?"

"It's a family. It's my brother in your kitchen." He pleaded into her shoulder quietly. "Sure, mightily dysfunctional, but my family."

"Your family is beyond dysfunctional." She muttered off tightly as she graced a chaste kiss against his jaw and leaned forward from his touch, easing back into the way she was rushing to be on time. "They're sociopathic."

He was always delaying her daily life.

Always dragging her still when she was trying to move in her predetermined direction.

It was both endlessly annoying and hedging on a comfortable intimacy that had her longing for a little more delaying.

"This is going to take time." He told her as he angled himself onto the edge of the bathtub, leaning forward so that he could idly rub dark fabric along the back of her knee as she swept her hair up quickly.

"Tell me about it." Ally sighed off wearily. "I'm trying, Scotty. It's not like I expected this situation when I walked into Charming, okay?"

"I mean Marks."

She cast a glance down into the succinctly angry and brittle dryness of his tone as she tied her hair off. "I know."

The press of his fingers was heavy on the vulnerable softness of the inside of her knee, pressing an intent there, "He's smart, Althea. We have to be smarter."

She nodded down over him, exhaling slowly as she wiped a palm against the rounded and muscled curve of one shoulder. "He picked the wrong people, Telford."

"He picked the perfect people." Chibs sharply answered, his eyes thin as he shook his head up at her. "He picked the two that could kill each other off on his behalf if they don't trust in each other just a bit."

He knew the blackened look that would wipe over her face before it came along.

And he nodded into it tightly. "Aye. Exactly, my love."

"I can trust you in this." She admitted softly, letting her hand lift from his shoulder so that she could turn back toward her bedroom.

"In this." He snorted off as he pressed his body up from the tub, following after far enough that he could let his bare arm rest into the doorframe, watching her lift her gun belt as he chewed against his cheek. "Just this?"

"Really, Scotty?" Ally breathed out quietly, voice treading derogatory. "You wanna have this discussion now? Your pal just broke into my kitchen and went rummaging through my house while I was going down on you in the shower. And it's okay with you because he's family. It's not okay with me yet, all right? Gimme the time."

Chibs swallowed the smile that threatened to take his lips. "Seem to remember a pal of yours breaking in once too. Ended a little differently, I believe. Least Tiggy's watchin' your ass because I asked him to, not because he's got a wandering eye and a habit."

"Bullshit." She snarked at him as she looped the belt on. "Teller sent him out here for you. Don't make it sound like it was your idea because you're thoughtful and romantic and charming."

"I've asked him to watch over you before, Althea. And I am those things, occasionally." He taunted in her direction, voice hushed quiet as he lifted his glance from her hands and over her face.

"Among other things, yes, sure." Ally countered quietly, catching the softness that was still curling his shoulder into the doorframe, his hands stuffed into his pockets in a peace keeping that made her reel in some of the frustration with a curtailed breath. "What are we doing, Filip? This is… it's been beyond just fucking for awhile. And now it's beyond what either of us can control on our own. You won't even tell me what road we're on but you just keep gunning the engine, expecting me to hold on."

He arched a brow into the assertion, sleeking his tongue against his bottom lip, "You came for me, Lieutenant. You kept pullin' me back in here. And you - "

"Guys." Tig's voice was truly apologetic as he wedged his boot against the half open door, his leg the only thing visible until he leaned into the way their silence had suddenly hushed the room. "Sorry, AJ. Hap's callin' us in, Chibs."

"I'm already late." She lifted her hands defensively before she reached for her boots, letting her body settle into the mattress as she moved to pull them on.

"In a minute." Chibs told the other man with a softened nod. "Gimme a minute, yeah?"

"Yeah." Trager gave up a breezy smile between them, crooking a gloved wave of his fingers in Ally's direction that was teasing and playful and, frankly, too close to possibly heartfelt for her to ignore, "Be gentle, doll. He's an old man now."

"Hey," She shied him a graceful smile and let up a breathy laugh, the hued brown in her eyes going a tip toward caramel as she blinked softly at him, "you keep him close, Tigger. Don't let him be an idiot."

"Do my best." He gave her a widening grin, eyes a suddenly shined blue at the use of his nickname.

Her face went warmly playful, "Now get the hell outta my house."

Trager snorted off a laugh, palm thwacking the frame before he stepped away, "Yes, ma'am."

She caught the humored and interested way Telford was watching the smile ride her lips, his head angled into the doorframe. "What?"

"Y'do like him, Ally." He murmured assuredly. "Can't help yourself."

"It's not about whether I like him or not… but he loves you just as much as you love him." She tugged a boot on with a jerked movement, head cocked into the assertion. "And he doesn't hold that love over your head like - "

"Ah." He lifted his fingers swiftly. "Just leave it where it's sweet, darlin'. Don't take it there."

"Sure." Ally agreed softly, tightening down the laces on her boots. "Denial and omission. Because they make trust flourish in a relationship."

"It is that now, isn't it?" his accent curled adorably around the words and she intentionally didn't look up into the hushed teasing. But she felt the movement of him as she pulled on the other boot, sighing into the way he bent his fingers to wipe along the back of her neck.

"Be careful, please." She spoke softly after him as he grabbed his shirt off the chair and tugged it quickly over his head. "Stay with that lunatic brother of yours, huh?"

"And you don't go out to Morada without a second car or makin' a phone call." He nodded into an agreement as he turned into the way her head was finally lifted. "Deal?"

She shrugged into a slowly made nod, "Deal."

"I mean it." He hushed down into the way he tweaked against the edge of her black banded badge before stepping toward the door, catching his cut off the bed on his way through.

"So do I." She caught the way his shoulders urged to turn before the rest of his body leaned into the movement, his features slackened in a calmed acceptance.

The slow smile that crested his face and drew his eyes to hers was well worth being very late. "I gotta go."

The smirking he'd twisted through the words was enough to tell her that she wasn't going to get away from hearing them over and again. He seemed to take far too much pleasure in the way they annoyed her.

And she let it go. Because it seemed as though they were more and more often an apology for having to leave her when he absolutely didn't want to do so.


	43. Chapter 43

"You lost, sweetheart?" there was a softened warmth to the other woman's voice that hedged around one of her shoulders to the other, drawing her into a turn as the blonde's heels clicked around her. "Chibs isn't here."

"That's fine." Ally shook off slowly, letting her hand brace against the bar as her shoulders relaxed and she looked over the long run of perfectly placed blonde hair. "Lyla? Right?"

"Yeah." There was a country corn fed innocence to the other woman's perfectly pale skin and doe wide eyes, but it was somewhat wasted and shredded by a latent layer of too much trauma. "Out of uniform, Sheriff?"

"Ally. Off duty." She forced a smile onto her lips as she watched one of the workers that was laying carpeting in the spacious room cast an obviously blatant look over the both of them, his attention distracted into the way he tripped up slightly over a discarded tool. Both women let up a similar breath of laughter before sharing another glance, this time a little friendlier.

"But still wearing your badge and weapon." the blonde shifted easily behind the bar, her fingers catching up a binder from the shelving beneath it, drawing it into her chest. "I can call him. You need him?"

"I'm perfectly capable of calling him if I need him, thank you." Ally asserted softly, the sudden up drive of her spine completely reflexive and unintentional as the fingers that were resting on her hip wiped against the badge the other woman had drawn attention to so easily. "Don't you worry about that."

"Okay. You're not here for him." Lyla nodded slowly into a caged understanding, her bright eyes suddenly darkening with a tightened knowing. "Gotcha. Jax is in the back. I'll get him."

"Thank you." She nodded into an apologetic smile of appreciation, head tipping as the blonde stepped back down the line of the bar and voice softening in an attempt to thread something back toward cordial. "I thought you were running things at Red Woody? I didn't expect to see you out here."

Lyla nodded quickly, "And working on the books until they can pin it on somebody else. None of them have the patience for numbers anymore."

"They don't generally seem to have all that much patience to begin with." Ally offered as her fingers flexed tighter into the bar. "Being here doesn't make you uncomfortable, Lyla? It doesn't - "

"It just is." The blonde shunted at her tightly. "It's what happened. We deal with it."

"You've dealt with a hell of a lot." She intentionally relaxed against the bar, letting her arm loosen as she searched over a lot of prettiness that was tarnished up. "Why stay so close? Why take the risk?"

"They're my family. They do everything they can for me and the kids." The younger woman shook her head slightly, confusion filling the brightness of her eyes. "They're what I've got. What I am."

Ally nodded slowly, "You sound just like Chibs."

The other woman gave her a cocked glance that carried a suddenly fierce smile, one that strengthened thin shoulders, "He likes you, Ally. I mean, really likes you."

She couldn't help herself from letting scrutiny shade the angles of her face as she straightened up from the bar again, both hands skirting her hips. "As in?"

"As in," Lyla lifted her hand from the binder, waving her fingers out around the room as she started turning toward the back. "girls at both places have sorta missed him lately. He's one of the good ones. You're breaking some hearts."

"Yeah? Tell your girls to have a good wallow and move the fuck on, huh?" She cast off with a prized smile, catching the grin Lyla nodded into her before moving down the hall.

"I'll do that."

"Lyla?" she leaned into the bar tightly, her fingers prying on the edge of it as she watched the waves of blonde bounce into the stalled turning of the younger woman's head, questioning in blue eyes. "You're serious?"

"Far as I know." The blonde let her face soften into the truth as she shrugged. "He's in house. But he's not… ya know, in house."

The brunette nodded tightly, appreciation drawing the color of her eyes a shade brighter as they shared a tentative but true smile. "Thank you."

"You're welcome."

* * *

"You can't push through Charming." She took the drink he handed over the bar, accepting it lightly as she let her spine lean into the stool back. "Go around, Jax."

"I know." He nodded as he tipped the neck of the bottle against another empty glass, dumping it near full to the brim before letting up. "I need your boys on one side or the other though. I need a clear road."

"You think I haven't been busted down to directing traffic before?" she commented tightly as her elbow rode onto the back of the stool on a hardened glance. "I need your travel times. I'll keep cruisers spread out."

He lifted his glass in her direction sharply before dropping the shot back, swallowing hard as he held the empty up a moment before letting it set to the table. "Chibs can let you know. He's taking this one."

"You're sending him out of the county again?" she asked tightly, eyes catching against his as she swallowed down the shot he'd poured her and let the burn of high end liquor warm her lungs.

Teller cocked her a sliding smirk, lifting the bottle in an offer that she just couldn't damn well refuse in the face of his haughtiness. "I seem to remember you once telling me that he's a big boy, Lieutenant."

"I just dislike him being out of jurisdiction." She settled the glass to the table and shrugged into waiting. "Where are you on the Marks situation, Jax? In regards to - "

"In regards to you? Wouldn't generally be my highest priority, Jarry. But…" He lifted the bottle and tipped another pour into both glasses before skidding his tongue against his teeth, bottle set to the bar. "In regards to my club? And your connection to it? It's just more weight. Marks was already waiting out the Reaper. It'll come."

She blinked full surprise into his words, hand pausing curled against the glass. "I didn't expect you to actually tell me that."

"I'm only telling you because I need you clear of it when it lands." He pulled his glass closer, matching the unmoving hand she had on her own. "Both professionally and personally."

"I can't promise you that, Teller." She flicked him a darkening glance. "You know I can't make this all work by constantly closing my eyes. And if I lose my job, you lose your leverage. If you want me out of it, keep it out of my face."

His eyes shifted dark and thin and instead of responding he lifted his jaw into the sound of voices outside the door. He slowly lifted the glass that his fingers were wrapped around, aiming it in her direction before swallowing it down hard. His palm flipped the glass to the table as he nodded forward and looked toward the door.

"Drink the whiskey and smile, Jarry." He cast over her tightly. "Make it look like we weren't just waving dick at each other. They don't need any more nerves riding on them."

She gave him a forced smile as she lifted the glass, catching the taunting tone of Trager's voice as the doors broke open behind her. Telford's lower tone was another, more welcome, breaking wave behind her as she swallowed down the next whiskeyed burn into the way Teller was intently watching her with a complicit nod.

* * *

She knew by the sudden visceral and feral breathing silence behind her that they were prowling up along her back, and as Teller turned away from her she felt the unswayable combined heat of a pair of cross hearted brothers flush along her spine. Ally forced her shoulders to stay into a sort of calmly jaded stillness as both of them broke along her sides, their bodies matching into the way they bracketed along her against the bar. Trager was already reaching for the bottle that had been left open along the bar and she lifted her glance away from his stretching hand to find a darkened glance shading over her from the other side. There was a shift of near on distrust in Telford's eyes as his jaw angled slightly, his lips parted as he exhaled.

"Didn't realize you were switchin' teams on me, love. Coulda given me some warning." He cast a glance around the place with a brazen shrug of supposed surprise. "Woulda spent more time drivin' south."

"You could, ya know." She tipped him a taunting glance in response, lips pursed into the way Tig was snorting laughter as he shifted back into the seat on her opposite side. "I wouldn't complain."

A half grin rose on his face as his brows went up, "You not complainin'? That'd be a first, darlin'."

Ally just leveled him a slow smile in response, her spine fencing into the slow teasing murmur Trager laid up along her back, "You're slidin' into Old Lady territory here, AJ. He's drawing you in slow like. Making it seem like he's just damn adorable."

"I know that, Trager." Her fingers lifted from where they were spaced against the wood of the bar, shifting to tease faintly along the underside of Telford's wrist where his hand was flexed against the bar.

"Havin' chats with Jackie again?" Chibs ignored their whispered playfulness, his jaw firmed as he watched her hand press forward, forcing him to shift his weight up and lay his gloved palm flat onto hers before pressing back down.

"How come he tells me you're leaving my jurisdiction but you don't?" her glance rose accusingly into the way he finally angled a pained but patient look over her.

"You worry too much." Chibs murmured over her before catching the way Trager pressed up and away from the chair, bottle raised in a mock salute as he stepped away from them and toward a few of the others who had battered their way into the room as well. "And I don't tell you such things anyhow. Do I?"

"No, you don't." she sighed off, letting her shoulders bend into the way he'd slanted his hips enough to mostly face her, palm still holding her hand pinned down. "This is my only day off until next week, Telford."

He winced a look over her and shook his head slightly into a dragging regret. "I can't. Too much coming down."

"I know." Her other hand crossed over to tighten and tug on his cut. "It's okay."

"Wait here, yeah?" he asked quietly as he dropped his jaw closer to hers, eyes flirting toward her lips and back up. "It won't be too long. Just stay."

"Some of your other friends don't like me just hanging around, Filip." She let off a discordant laugh, "It makes them uncomfortable. Makes them edgy. You think I can't tell?"

His eyes darkened up a little as his face slacked lighter in color. "Y'think I care?"

"Yeah, I do." Ally softened into truth, her face panning acceptingly sad as she studied his frustration. "But it's okay. I get it."

"Just wait awhile." His other hand broke off the back of the stool with a shift of surety, catching against her head as he downed a kiss against her, forcing it strong and heady with a hard stroke of his tongue against hers. "Don't go anywhere."

She tucked into herself as he pulled the leathered heat of his body away from her, glance pinning blindly back to the bar as she exhaled, "Then tell Trager to gimme back the damn bottle."

"Get your own, Lieutenant." Tig shot off as he back stepped around the bar, Telford's hand shunting up along his shoulder to keep his backwards steps moving as the whole lot of them disappeared into the back.


	44. Chapter 44

He watched the tacitly amused and flushed smile she gave Quinn as the larger man offered a soft greeting in her direction, her face crashing into a sort of almost affection as both he and Trager passed by her. Chibs hung back quietly, catching the way Tig leaned into and over the bar beside her, his words too quiet to overhear as he groped a hand below the bar and fumbled for another bottle. He caught the trip of laughter that breathed off her lips as she nodded into the way his friend cracked the top on a fresh whiskey and aimed toward the glasses that were still settled in front of her. His shoulder benched into the hall wall, shoring up the sudden sway of wanting that slaked over his shoulders as he watched Trager brace beside her and pour to subtly warn off any possibly negative responses to her presence.

"She may not know that look on your face." Teller's voice was a trailing whisper at his shoulder. "But we do, brother. And some of us are seeing it a hell of a lot."

Chibs felt his face wince into the implication, avoiding looking to his side as he continued the watch Tig talk with her. "She says you'll make me choose between the two of you. But she knows where that lands. Why d'you think she came to you on her goddamn knees? Christ, Jackson, I'm too old t'play games anymore."

"She sold her badge for you and Charming." Jax's tone went low but calm. "I'm not forcing anything but what she offered in exchange."

"Sure," Chibs shot him a tightened sidelong glance, "and what was that? Her goddamn pride?"

"She makes it easier for us to do what we have to in order to get things back, Chibs. We make Charming whole again. And you keep a balance between her and your club. It's a win/win, especially for you. Let it go."

"Suddenly you're defending a woman you'd just as soon see driven out of the county?" the Scot snorted his head into a shake. "You're gettin' more than a leniency of law. I'm not stupid and I don't like bein' shut out of it."

"That's too bad." Jax dropped a sharp finality between them, jaw angling long. "Because you're too close to it."

"What's she promising you, Jackson?" he caught the side of his fist into the other man's shirt sleeve, face slacked drawn. "I need to know."

Jax cocked his glance down into the way fingers were prying fabric before looking back up. "Ask her."

"We don't discuss business." Each word was a thudding staccato of strong accent.

"She's your alibi." Jax hushed back tightly as he turned into the other man's chest, shoulders bricking up tightly as they faced each other. "Doesn't matter the charge, or the repercussion. If you land in a cell, she becomes your cover. Charges get dropped because San Joaquin's best is gonna swear up and down that you were with her. And I'm pretty sure you've left your mark all over her place to prove it. Are we clear now?"

"It'll end her goddamn career." Chibs hissed into the younger man.

"She's a resourceful woman. She'll figure it out." Jax exhaled slowly with a slight shake of his head, an intentionally darkening glance of scrutiny and accusation roving the older man's face. "Are you in love with her, Chibs? Did you really let yourself go there?"

He couldn't match the blue of the boy's eyes and instead let his jaw lift his head to the side, staring into a void of space as he breathed out. "No."

"Jesus Christ." The pursed press of the younger man's lips as he shook his head was enough to catch Telford's breath up in his lungs. "You just lied to my face whether you realize it or not."

"Did y'just let yourself love Tara?" he asked quietly into the jaded disbelief Jax was panning over him, watching the furious sadness that swallowed the blonde's face toward a haunted raging.

"Tara wasn't a cop." Jax sharpened over him as he levered tighter between them. "And don't you dare put that on a level with this."

"And why not?" Chibs let the younger man bleed a visual rage over him, feeling the tensing of their bodies against each other. "We loved her too, Jackie, but she was never fully in. She was here for you, not this club. She still paid the price, though. Didn't she, boy?"

He took the punch he'd intentionally drawn, laxing his jaw into the way he saw it coming for his face, letting it lay a ring bloodied bruising on him that maybe he sure as hell deserved.

* * *

"That's pretty much exactly what I meant when I said that me being here makes some people edgy." Her voice was a little tinny, echoing in ringing ears as she leaned into the way he'd slung his spine into a turned stool, head back and his palm caged up under a throbbing jaw, "Christ, Filip. What did you do?"

"My bloody fucking alibi?" he snapped back at her as she tipped his head back with a towel to his lip, catching the way Tig hung back a little even though the rest of them had cleared the room behind Teller. "You handed him your career just to - "

"Shut your mouth." She clapped over him tightly, jamming the towel tightly into the bleeding that was blanching the white fabric a muddied color. "You don't get to tell me how to handle my business, do you Telford?"

Fury tamped down the muscles of his body as he stared over the way she was silently pressing the towel into him, a hard exhalation shattering off his lungs as he jerked his head to the side and caught Trager's eyes. He avoided the way she glared on him by wiping a shaky hand against his mouth, tasting penny metal blood and too much anger.

"Go." He nodded toward the door. "Not your fight, Tiggy. Y'don't need this on you too."

Trager shook his head slightly to one side as he backed toward the door, "I'll wait. Just lemme know when you're ready."

He blanched the other man a knowing look. "Tig."

"He's got everyone else. I'll wait." Trager shunted off before stepping out Diosa's doors, letting them hush closed behind his intentionally softened boot steps.

"Why couldn't you just leave it alone?" she slapped the towel onto the bar, watching him run his tongue against his teeth before spitting a hash of blood from between his lips with a look of distaste.

"That rage has been a long time makin', sweetheart. I just let it come home." He slowly shook his head back and forth, a mottling of reddened up swelling starting to discolor his face enough to otherwise pale him. "Better it land on me than the others - that's what a VP's for. B'sides, my fault, my face."

She shook her head, not completely believing the thrown off vacancy of his voice as he let his head bank back onto his shoulders again, eyes squeezed shut. "What did you do?"

"Gave him his strength." Chibs admitted softly as his head turned back down, a hazy melancholy raking his eyes darker. "Let him be the gavel."

"I don't mean for him." Ally shook her head slowly, her palm laying flat and long onto the denim on his thigh, gripping into the inseam to hold him still and tight. "That wasn't just boys being boys, Telford."

"No." he answered softly, his tongue touching carefully against the split that laid his top lip open on the right side. "But he's gonna need that drive. I gave him the channel."

"What did you do?" she repeated and pried her fingers tighter into his pants as he let his tongue run against taste of blood. "Why draw him out when this gets us - "

"It gets us nothing if it falls apart." He shunted into her, a hand catching into the shirt she was wearing and jerking tighter. "Nothing, Althea. It was the wrong choice. Back off it before it screws you over."

Her eyes filled in dark as her jaw angled slowly to the side, a certain cutting knowledge settling over her and glossing her glance, "It won't work twice in a row, Scotty. You can't play the same hand at the same table."

He flinched her an ever tightening glance, glaring into the way she was watching his face for a tip of emotion.

"And you say I'm the one who lights fires." She murmured as her hand soothed against his tensed leg. "What did you do that has you starting fights, Filip?"

He just blinked as his head angled slowly, a swallow going bitter down his throat as his face went paler, "I chose you."

"Oh, no," she leaned a slow shake of the head forward, hair breaking her shoulder as she let her weight into his chest. "you didn't. But it's sweet as hell that you think you did. Though, you're pretty dumb in your execution."

"I just - "

"You may have thought you were choosing me, Filip, but you were taking care of your boy at the same time. Which is enough for both of us right now. So just let it idle." She whispered as she searched over his split lip, her fingers catching his jaw as she pressed her thumb tentatively along the way the blood was starting to tack up on already welted skin.

"Y'won't let me fuckin' win, woman." He flicked her a tired glance, head leaning forward into hers. "What d'you want?"

"A long hot bath with a bottle of wine, a joint, and a Scot." She teased over him, forcing his head up by the rise of hers, her eyes still focused on his mouth. "But you have to go play bad guy now. So, you're just gonna miss the other three."

"And you?" he questioned cheekily into the implication.

"And me." She finally smiled her lips gently to the opposite side of his mouth.

He caught her face still before she could pull away from him in an attempt to keep him balanced between anger and despondency and his hands were chilled cool against her skin, colder than usual as he looked over her face slowly. His eyes were thin and blackened up as he shook his head minutely, confusion darkening the lines of his face before he pressed his head forward and drove a kiss on her that had the metallic mingled taste of blood and whiskey tainting on her tongue. It suddenly had her spine wiring taut as he laid a groan into her teeth and dug his fingers into her hair to keep her locked into the kiss. The sudden upstroke of his body into hers added a sort of wary tremor but he soothed the tensing of her frame with one hand wiping onto the back of her head as he broke his lips from hers and drove his forehead forward. His eyes were closed as he exhaled, a racket of a sigh off his lungs as he pressed harder on her.

"That felt like a goodbye." She whispered into a suddenly cautious hitch of breath, hands lifting in worry as he shook his head against hers, eyes still down closed as he wrapped his arms against her ribs.

"No." he shunted between them as he shook his head, fingers catching her hair up behind her ear. "That was a whole new hello, Cu Sith."

She blinked him a quirked glance of confusion that he just smiled into, "Scotty, even when I can understand what you're saying, you don't make sense."

"Tiggy's waiting." He smirked as she wiped carefully against the freshly opened split, watching as he kissed against her reddened thumb. "We gotta catch up."

She blinked a surprised smile into the fact he'd switched the words around this time. "I'm not clearing your speeding tickets, Telford."

The fact he grinned as he turned her swayed some of the concern out of her, the comfort of his hips lining up against hers settling her lungs as he walked her out.


	45. Chapter 45

"Have I missed it? I have, haven't I?"

Ally smiled broadly into the hushed teasing that carried over the line, his voice a little breathy but warm with a boyish humor. "You mean the bath? Yes."

The muttered curse that dragged against the line brought her laughter full as she shouldered the phone and shifted her laptop from her crossed legs, angling it farther down the bed as she shunted paperwork to the side. Her back stretched into the head board, shoulders rolled back as she winced into realizing she'd been in one slumped position for too long.

"I still have half a bottle of wine." She turned softly over the line in a hushed and curling tone of voice.

"And I still have miles to go, darlin'." He murmured back into an obvious remorse. "Just checking in."

She made an understanding noise in her throat as she let her eyes close, head pressed hard back into the wall as she exhaled, "Teller still pissed?"

"Well, we don't much need to talk to ride anyhow." He hashed over the slight crackling that was eating up the line tethering them. "So, no. Not at all. He's fine."

Ally untangled her legs from the way she'd spread half her work over the bed, socked feet pressing the mattress beside the computer blindly as she stretched her back harder and exhaled. "You don't call me to check in, Telford. What's up?"

"Call ya for check ins all the time." He mumbled back. "Call ya plenty."

"Not like this." She argued quietly, catching the faint murmur of voices going in his background. "What's going on?"

"It was stupid, what you did. Making a promise like that." His words were brash but there was a struggling telling to their softness. "Y'know that, Ally."

"So don't get arrested." She murmured back into his assertion. "And I won't have to worry about it."

"It was stupid." The line was crackling quiet for a moment. "But sweet."

She drew in a slow breath, eyes still shut as she let her empty hand relax against her stomach, spine finally relaxing into her stretching. "Are you going after Marks? Is that why you're being so… I dunno."

His breathing silence was more of a truth than she'd expected from him.

And the fact he didn't try to lie it away was enough to curb a little patience on her.

"So what?" his voice was stunted slightly.

"Attentive. It's unnerving." She murmured quietly. "You are, aren't you? The whole damn pack of you. You're hunting him down."

"Althea." His tone twisted quieter.

"You ramped him right up." She surmised quietly over the phone, "He needed to focus and you gave him an outlet right before he walked out the door."

"He's still just an angry boy, love." There was a whispered near on teasing in his voice but it was still sobered enough that it fell flat. "And he's lost his center."

"Filip - "

"And I stood up for you at the same time. Y'should be flattered." He shunted over the line tightly. "And I called."

She shook her head into exasperation, "Just be careful."

"I will." There was a welling warmth of a smile in his tone. "Stop worryin'."

"I can't." she flushed over the line with a tone that she'd really hoped to keep reigned in a bit longer. "You know that."

It was a deafening beat before he answered, "And that's why I called."

He was holding the line with shortened words and an otherwise nerved up silence and it was itching her skin toward crawling.

"You're killin' me, Scotty." The shake of her head against the wall drove a ridge of almost pain into the back of her skull, the force breaking a darkness into her field of vision as her chest cinched. "One of these days one of us is gonna have to put up or shut up."

A ranged heat of cagey laughter broke over the line, "Ally, I don't see a day comin' where you just shut up."

She smiled despite her frustration, not knowing where the rest of the night's roads were going to take him, accepting his placating humor to partly assuage the worry that was chilling her cold, "Will I see you tomorrow, Vice President?"

"Aye, save the wine." He agreed tightly. "Sleep a little for me, yeah?"

The quick cut of the line was a clear assurance that she likely wouldn't.

* * *

The problem with classifying him in any way, trying to connect with what she touched when he was close, the problem was that she had nothing of him besides a shirt, empty bottles and spent cigarette butts. And while she wasn't normally the sort of woman that would twist and burr up, it was nagging a slight annoyance of a headache behind her eyes as she tried to let herself sleep. Because he was suddenly so twined and knotted up into her life, but she still had very little to nothing in her hands when he was away. And it was the first time in a long time that the feeling of it was more of a saddened emptiness than a sign of independent freedom. She wasn't generally apologetic when it came to men. She wasn't generally all that apologetic when it came to life. But a half empty mattress was starting to feel more and more like a bed of apologies the both of them made for what they were and what they did when separated.

She dumped her body back, stretching flat onto her spine as both hands raked over her face before tugging into her hair, skin chilled clammy and sweated and cold at once. She knew what he was doing and he hadn't had to truth or tell or lie for her to figure it out. And if she slept, the turn of morning was going to make him out a savior or murderer. Likely, both at once - if he survived the hours he was turning under spinning wheels and the promise of a retribution. She wasn't looking forward to the report of his night's endings crossing her desk. Because it would tell her more than he had, black and white typed up truths that said he was still a liar, even if by the silence of omission. Even if the hands that broke down on August Marks were going to break heat on her within the day.

She suddenly and surprisingly accepted the trade off with a slack spine, staring blankly at the ceiling. Because this raged retribution was partly hers to own. And they were both blindly spinning fortune's wheels in this. Regardless of what he could be when he was apart from her, he was generally not those things when he was letting her draw his heat onto her. She'd argued once that he wasn't a vigilante and while in truth, he absolutely self appointed himself a sort of twisted up justice… In another truth, with her, he wasn't. He let her be the justice and judge of true and untrue. He let her be the vigilante when he gentled each argument with an affectionate foil of humor and teasing and warmth.

He was capable of so much shine and unabashed heat that the stretching opposite on the spectrum of cold fury was the hardest thing for her to accept.

Especially in the middle of the night, in a half empty bed, while she waited to see if he could survive being the face of grim one more time.

At least until the next time.

And the next after that.

"Jesus, Ally." Her fingers pried into her hair as she squeezed her eyes shut. "You're an idiot."

Because even the bitterly swallowed acceptance of his predetermined actions didn't exempt her from realizing that she damn well loved him anyhow.

At least, in the only eyes-shut way she could love a liar.

Which was generally also the only way she could find to love herself.

* * *

"I'm sorry." She offered into the completely confused and not yet completely awake way that Lyla Winston was staring at her from across a somewhat cluttered but small and homey kitchen. "I needed to talk to… Chats with Gemma Teller aren't an option for me. And I don't have a lot of female friends. I don't usually like women."

A suddenly blushingly amused smile wrote so fully over the other woman's face that Ally shook her head into her eyes shutting, embarrassment flushing her skin warmly as she blew out a breath of uncertainty. The blonde's laughter was suddenly such a hash of graceful warmth between them that she couldn't help opening her eyes again in a sweeping rise of self defense. But there was such a wealth of gentleness in the way Lyla was nodding her a slowly complacent understanding that she had to back off the shunting annoyance.

"They're insane." Lyla murmured quietly as she wrapped the satin silkiness of the robe tighter, "And you shouldn't care about them. But you just can't help yourself?"

"Something like that." Ally admitted gently, uncomfortable in the way her uniform paled her stark in comparison to the other woman's half awake rosiness. "Add more tension, constant distrust and a lot of great sex and you've pretty much nailed it."

"The kids are gonna sleep for another hour or so." Lyla smirked into the words as she reached for the coffee she'd left on the counter. "Back porch?"

Ally just nodded agreement as her arms stretched her torso to cross her body.

"Coffee?"

"Oh," she shook it off tightly, "I don't need any more, thank you."

Lyla's laughter was something that she couldn't quite accept as friendly yet, but it was hedging safer on her than it had been.


	46. Chapter 46

"You have to see all of him." Lyla's voice was a sympathetic softness as she shook her head, glance thrown forward blankly into the back yard that was full of bikes and toys and a swing set that stood high sentry. "You can't pick and choose the parts you like or dislike. He's all of it. The good and the bad."

"It's not just him." Ally matched the forward staring. "It's who I am. I shouldn't be where I am and some of them make that pretty clear."

"Gemma?" Lyla asked softly, her head turning as her fingers curled around her coffee cup on a snorted laugh. "She'll keep pushing at you just to find the line. It's not just about you being a cop. In her mind it's about her showing you your place if you plan on sticking around. She did the same thing to Tara. It didn't last forever."

"And Jax?" she questioned tightly to the side. "Just putting me in my place?"

Lyla shrugged up a slow agreement, "He is, in a way. Not kindly, I'll admit. But he's finding you a way to fit, whether it's comfortable or not. But do you really think that any of us are completely comfortable with this life?"

"Gemma seems pretty pleased with where she's sitting."

"Gemma's been through more shit than any of us." There was a quick shunt of defense in the younger woman's voice and Ally turned her glance toward a brash blue brightening the other woman's voice. "I'm not surprised she acts the way she does. Disappointed, but not surprised."

There was a breathing of resigned silence between them as Lyla took another swallow of coffee into a slow shrug.

"Ally, Gemma doesn't like you because you're the kind of woman that could take her place someday if you really went all in on this." Lyla finally dropped tightly between them. "But that's not her only worry. Her worry is that if you ever do, you'd do exactly what Tara did. You'd own it and him and not question yourself in doing so. And the fact that it's not Jax doesn't matter to her. Chibs is only one step down and one fuck up away from being the face of the club. And she's terrified it's your voice he's gonna hear, not hers."

"I don't know if I'm okay with caring about a man who would want to take a bullet for nothing but brotherhood or loyalty."

"Sorta like a cop might?" Lyla teased off in a quiet whispering before sipping her coffee, brow arched in subtle accusation.

Althea blinked quickly into the comment. "Damn."

"Yeah." The blonde nodded before turning her glance back out over the yard. "But that's not your real problem."

"No." she shook her head softly. "It's not."

"Because you have to see all of him. You have to find a way to accept all of him, Ally. They're not completely good or completely bad. They're just men." Lyla hushed off on a look that said she was still wearing a lot of a lot of pain on thin shoulders. "But then, I'm just a porn star. And you're kind of a bitch."

Ally snorted into a laugh as she shook her head on a smirk. "I know."

"And you're proud of it." Lyla added into humor. "Jesus. It works for you. And he likes it. Own it. Own him. Because that's all he's waiting for - he's waiting to see if you've got the balls for this. He can't trust you until he knows you can handle a hundred miles of bad road bullshit with a nod and a smile."

The phone sounding off inside the house broke the smirking way the blonde was angled toward her and Ally watched her dump the dregs of her coffee into the scrub grass beside the porch as she stood.

"Thank you." She offered softly as the other woman made a move to answer it.

"You're welcome."

* * *

"Hey," the blonde's voice was a soft tripping of caution behind her as Ally jerked the door handle open on the cruiser. "hang on."

"I have to get back to the station." She shook off, feeling slightly scrub worn by the entire conversation, her skin prickling with nerves and near embarrassment.

"That was Rat." Lyla's eyes carried a deeper blue than they had just a few moments before. "Gemma and I are pulling everybody in. We're gonna lock down Red Woody."

Ally flicked a hardening glance over her, "They on their way back yet?"

Confusion lifted Lyla's head a little. "You know where they are?"

She intentionally ignored the other woman's surprised realization that she had more information than she'd been fronting, "Are they on their way back?"

"Not for awhile, I don't think." Lyla answered. "He said we'd have a couple Nomads and that was it until another Charter got here. Keep everyone in house."

Ally nodded slowly as her fingers tightened on the door framing, "I can have my guys take some runs by the place. I'll keep them close."

"You should come when you're off." Lyla was nodding tightly as she stepped backwards toward the house. "Seriously."

"I really don't think that's a good idea." Ally shook it off. "Thanks, though."

"You should." There was a swift rebuttal of blue eyed frustration between them. "You may think you're badass, Ally, but they don't lock everyone down for no reason. And, frankly, you carry a gun. I wouldn't mind you having to use it if it was for my kids, ya know?"

She gave the woman an apologetic nod, feeling her face flush into understanding, "Yeah, okay."

"All in or not, Sheriff." Lyla told her with a sudden lack of patience as she headed for the front door. "You can't be both for long."

* * *

That long waiting headache had lost patience with her too, ripping up the nerves behind her eyes as she squinted into her office lighting, "You're gonna start in too, huh?"

Unser lifted his hands in a sort of helpless shrugging, his body leaned up back against one of the shelving units. "Hey, I just took a phone call, LT."

"From?" she asked sharply as her palm shunted the door closed.

"Told me to tell you that the deal you made with his dick supersedes both your shitty attitude and Jackson Teller." Even the ill looking paleness on him held a little humor.

Ally cocked her head slightly, letting her tongue ride her teeth as she exhaled a guarded relief between them, "That actually sounds about right. He okay?"

"And that you're spending the evening with the lovely ladies out at Red Woody."

"Wayne." She exhaled tightly.

"He's all right. I was told to expressly remind you about the dick part." The older man made a distinctly uncomfortable face, hand lifted between them to wave it off. "Which… is completely unnecessary and I'm pretty sure he was just doing it to squick me out."

She smirked into it reflexively, letting her body lay relaxed into the way she still had a flat palm pressed to the door, "I already told Lyla I'd go out there after shift."

"Yeah." He blinked on a slowly serious nod. "I'm gonna need you out there sooner than that. They've got three green Nomads on the place because they couldn't spare anybody else and it's gonna be a couple hours before Eureka or Reno can get here. Apparently, they fucked the time table. "

"Apparently." Her lungs blocked up in her chest as her other hand rested into her belt, "Wayne, when you and I are back-up for these jackasses, Teller really needs to start analyzing his leadership choices a little better."

The older man gave her a derisive snort, "Tell me about it. Maybe it should be brought to the attention of his second in command."

She rolled her eyes into his sarcasm, clipping her hand against the door handle but not opening it as she nodded, "And maybe you should shut the hell up and fake an illness so I can haul your ass out of here."

"The one I got ain't enough for you, Lieutenant?"

* * *

"Jesus Christ." Unser was watching her load the Ruger with widened eyes, his glance tipping to the full magazine and back up to her face. "Were you like this before you started sleeping with him?"

"Like what?" she asked blankly as she jacked the clip into the nine millimeter with a heeled palm, her hair pulled back in a pony tail and her uniform stripped off in exchange for jeans and a long sleeved shirt that was flush to skin.

The older man just shook his head slowly, "No wonder he's a walking woody around you."

Ally snorted a nearly silent laugh as she thumbed the safety and set the gun to the table, the Glock already settled in the holster she'd switched to a regular belt. "There's another one in the bathroom."

"Taped to the back of the toilet? I don't doubt it." Unser agreed with a knowing look over her face, any further comment stalled up by the chirping of his cell phone.

She watched him answer it, her lungs clinching as he just lifted the phone in her direction, his other hand aiming toward her fridge. "If you have beer in there, you're driving."

"That's helpful, Wayne." She chided as she took the phone and curled it between her ear and shoulder. "Hi."

"Two minutes, love." His voice was a weary rush of near on blatant appreciation. "Hi."

"You boys wanna come home now, please?" she turned away from the way the former Chief was already tugging a chilled brown bottle from her fridge, trying to keep her voice lightened as she listened to him inhale into the sound of her voice. "Because I'm about to become a security guard for a porn studio."

"Ally."

"And I'm really trying to be more open about this whole escort to porn thing but - "

"Althea." The rolling accented sigh of her name over the line caught up her shoulders as she leaned into the counter and dropped her glance to her boots.

"Are you okay?" she asked quietly, avoiding the way Unser was watching her as he took a hard swallow off the bottle.

"I'm fine." The assertion was shakier than she'd wanted it to be and it raked nerves raw and flared a branching of the headache she was still carrying. "I called the boys. They're expecting you. Shouldn't be a problem."

"You're bringing me back a souvenir or something from this trip, right?" she intentionally threaded a teasing through the words, keeping her voice humored soft to steady the balance.

He almost gave her a laugh but it died into a heaved sigh. "I'll figure out somethin'. You okay with this?"

She considered it only a tempered time before what Lyla had said earlier rattled through her head and got caught in the fingers of the headache that was gripping on her eyes.

Ally nodded slowly as her glance lifted to find Unser watching her with a saddened sort of affectionate sympathy, "I'm fine with it. Go ahead."

"Are y'really, Ally?"

"Really, Filip." She murmured. "The sooner you go, the sooner you come back, yeah?"

"Darlin'," he breathed the sound of heat into her ear and suddenly he sounded so much closer than he really was, "half a bottle of wine isn't gonna be enough."

"You better hurry, then." She smiled sadly in response to the thready concern in his voice, regardless of her assurances, "Unser's drinking your beer."


	47. Chapter 47

"I'm gonna be in so much shit for this, brother." Tig's hand shunted hard into the tension bunched muscle of the Scot's upper arm, his other palm clasping the back of the other man's arm as he pressed against a blood-let that was already slicking up a wrecked leather rip and hot flushed skin. "Jarry's gonna cut my balls off and wear 'em. Jesus fuck."

"It's fine." Chibs was hissing his breath through slightly parted teeth, his head cocked over so that he could study the way Tig was closing hands against the skiff a bullet had taken along his arm. "Doesn't even need stitches."

"Doesn't need stitches." Tig snorted derisively into the repetition. "You cocky fucker, it's bleeding like a sieve."

"S'fine." Chibs winked at him on a shaky glance before his head tipped back, a shuddering and wracking breath launching off his lungs and past his still bloodied lip. "It'll stop."

"Hey." Jax's voice was a quick up flush between them, his hand a quick catch against Chibs' jaw. "You all right?"

"Fine, brother." Telford laid his tongue between his lips before a manic grin tipped over his lips, his left hand lifting to press Trager's hands away so that he could cover the graze with a full flattened palm. "Just fine."

"Yeah?" there was a worry tipping back into blue that had been hardened for what seemed like years since they'd left Diosa. "You wanna stop? Patch you up?"

"Wanna go home." Chibs replied quickly, glance laying back down so that he could test pulling his palm back, wincing into the way blood still flowed enough to make him blow out a breath and press back against it. "Just gimme a minute."

"What do you need?" Tig upped his jaw into the question as Teller moved toward Happy, his voice culling low. "Chibby?"

"Tie it off." Chibs shunted back on a quick nod as he released his palm long enough to wincingly draw his cut down, angling his upper arm higher and out from his body, "And don't break my balls, Tiggy. She's gonna be enough of a handful when she sees it. No narcing."

"The Rambo shit isn't gonna fly anymore." Tig murmured quietly as he fisted into the bottom hem of Rat's shirt, tugging the younger man closer with a jerk before both hands roughly drew a strip of fabric off.

"What the hell, man?" Rat slapped against the way Tig was smirking, watching with a pent up look as Trager tied off the still bloodied graze, hands quick and jerked as he dug the knot tight.

"Let the kids do it, VP."

"Why?" Chibs grinned into it on a rush of sudden wide awake adrenaline.

Tig gave him a cocked glance, "Age, responsibility and pussy."

The Scot grinned back, "I tend t'only be a fanatic of one of those things."

"Yeah," Tig cuffed his hand sharply against the tied wound, intentionally shunting a slap of more pain onto it, "you wanna keep your season tickets, jackass?"

Chibs smirked into the concern that was glinting bright eyes in the darkness, surprise slowly leveling his breathing. "You on her side now, Tiggy?"

"I'm on the side of the angels, VP."

Chibs chuckled into a ranged run of energized humor, "She's no bloody angel. Trust me."

* * *

"Well," she intentionally ignored the knifing glare that was aiming at her from across the room, "this is suitably awkward."

Unser gave her a sidelong smile as he sipped against a bottle, "You and Gem are gonna have to sort this out at some point. I mean, if this is gonna be a thing."

"Not happening tonight, Wayne." She clipped her arms around her torso, letting her weight balance onto one booted heel while the other leg went lax, her glance surfing over the scattered crowd of women and children. "So at least there are plenty of beds in this place in the kids need naps."

He snorted a laugh into the bottle, "You're the worst sort of elitist, Jarry."

"Yeah?" she sighed off as she finally let her back lax a little, "What sort is that?"

"The catty female sort."

Her brush of cocky and agreeable laughter met the way he passed an offer of the bottle in her direction. She shaded him a half dragged glance before shaking her head, letting her gaze trip back up toward the way Lyla was heading for the both of them, one of her boys lagging grudgingly behind her.

"You're earlier than I thought." The blonde offered softly. "Thank you."

"You're welcome." Even she was surprised by the fact that the smile on her lips felt true and veering toward warm.

"This is Piper." Lyla easily ruffled her hand into the boy's hair, "Say hi to Ally."

The boy squinted her a petulant glance, his eyes lifting from the badge that was still clipped to her belt before rising, "You're a cop?"

"Unfortunately, yeah." Ally smirked surprise into it, catching the way Lyla hedged her a quickly apologetic glance. "Pay sucks. Trust me."

The boy just rolled a lazed glance toward his mother, eyes pleading.

"Go." Lyla waved off on a shake of the head, "Don't leave the building."

"Jesus." Ally shared a smirking look with Unser as she exhaled, the boy already ditching them as he headed for a cluster of women across the room. "And you say I'm an elitist."

"He's been around the guys for a long time." Lyla murmured quietly. "Sorry."

She waved her fingers up between them, shrugging it off, "It's okay."

"You look like you finally need that coffee." The blonde offered with a slowly growing smile.

Ally nodded a warm agreement and appreciation, watching as the other woman stepped away from them. She felt the humor fall from her face as she closed up on herself, arms looping tighter under her breasts as she blew out a breath of frustration. Wayne's hand clipped lightly against her arm in a press of brief support before he leaned nearer to her shoulder.

"The boy's second father died because crooked corrections officers penned him into a room and let a pack of convicts used his skull as a piñata, Ally." Unser's whisper was hashing so sadly quiet along her side. "You're standing hip deep in a whole lotta bad history."

"I realize that." She couldn't help the fact her shoulders tightened up.

"And they made those men watch." He added softly. "That's always gonna bleed over everyone in this room."

"I get it, okay?" Her head sharpened toward him tightly, eyes flecking a gilded brown as she sucked down a breath. "I get it."

"You don't, though." Wayne told her with a thinning look of force. "What you've been told, what you've read, it's never the whole story. It's never gonna meet up with their rationalizations for retribution."

"But I'm still standing here, right?" she sharpened over him.

"Yeah," he lifted his head in a challenging note, "why is that?"

She arched him a quick glare and laid an equally dank tone toward him, "Maybe I'm considering a lucrative career change."

His laughter met the lip of the bottle and she just rolled her eyes as she glanced back out over the room.


	48. Chapter 48

If she gave the woman credit for anything, it was the fact that she'd at least waited a good twenty minutes past middle of the night to force a conversation neither of them wanted to actually have.

"I'm about a hundred miles from the vicinity of 'in the mood' for your bullshit, Mrs Teller." She didn't unlatch her focus from the lot facing window, her body intentionally relaxed even though she'd recognized Gemma's iconically floral perfume before it had even had time to really settle into her space.

"Goddamn, Sheriff." The older woman whistled out a sharp sounding breath, her voice purposefully quiet in the studio, most of the others trying to find sleep. "Take a load off. You're gonna give yourself a hemorrhage."

Ally cocked her a tight glance into the antagonizing tone. "I mean it, Gemma."

"It's not the place," the darker woman let her hip flare out a little as she crossed her arms under her breasts, shrugging up with a passive glance, "or the time. I was just checking in."

Ally let off a short breath of disbelief, angling her glance back toward the darkened window, the flared lights angled intentionally into the lot. "Bullshit."

"It's not the time or the place." Gemma repeated in a hushed up whisper. "They're scared. And I'm not going to start shit with someone they think can protect them."

"I can." Althea lifted her shoulder into the way she turned her head, "And that's what terrifies you."

"You don't terrify me, sweetheart." Gemma murmured into a slow shake of her head, a forced up smile curling her lips. "I gotta respect someone to be terrified of them."

Ally intentionally rolled her glance back toward the darkness outside the window, ignoring the sweet voiced jab that the other brunette had given her for as long as she could. "At least we agree on something."

She'd let her tone drop the argument, ignoring the damnable sturdy closeness of the other female beside her. But it didn't last nearly as long as she would have liked. And the obviously intentional continued press of the other woman's presence had her head finally turning back into the way Gemma was studying her with pursed up lips and a tip of the head, her hair perfectly placed and curling low along her shoulders. Ally exhaled slowly, blanking her face into a paused questioning before silently shrugging her shoulders in expectancy.

"What exactly is your game?" the older woman asked tightly, her face looking near on sallow in the studio's lighting. "Because I don't buy into the cop falling for a biker bullshit. You have an agenda, Sheriff."

"Yeah," Ally shrugged plainly into it as she slacked her hands along her hips, her voice banking into a whisper as her head angled closer into the haze of expensive perfume. "Ask me what it is."

Gemma didn't ask, just lifted her shoulders in a sarcastically interested questioning.

"I'm going to take your boy home, pour a couple glasses of wine, and spend the rest of the morning letting him do whatever he wants to me – because he has a pretty extensive list of talents that I damn well enjoy. And when he's done, he's gonna sleep without twisting up about all the shit that he's done today." She easily let a smug smile into the admission, head lifted into it as Gemma searched her face in an obvious arch of distaste. "That's my agenda, Mrs Teller. Giving him a place to forget all the dirty little deeds he does for you and yours. If you have a problem, you tell the club's Vice President where he can put his dick and where he can sleep."

"He loves this - "

"He loves his club." Ally finished tightly for her with a nod of agreement. "And he sleeps next to me. And I'm standing right here. If you had the guts to try and change it, you would have done it already. Get right with it, Gemma. Because I'm getting awfully damn sick of your commentary. "

She angled her head toward the window, her lungs clamped up as she waited for a slap back, whether physical or verbal.

And the lift of her jaw into the sound that echoed and reverberated into the outer walls was made at the same moment Gemma's head turned toward the window in quick interruption. "You make sure it's them before anybody goes out there, Sheriff."

Ally nodded a silent agreement into the concerned ringing in Gemma's tone, lungs loosening into the familiar run of patches she squinted into, her glance nodding . "It's them."

* * *

She waited out the rest of them, keeping her steps sidelong from the way a handful of men and women, including Gemma, met them bike side. She hadn't necessarily wanted to curl into that crowd, keeping her distance to intentionally lay a sort of peace between their owning and her presence in a place she probably shouldn't have been in. But she watched over them quietly, letting her arms curl against herself as she counted heads and sorted who was who as they leaned off bikes and tugged off helmets. A certain stab of unshakeable jealousy laid long into her lungs as she caught the way Gemma was comfortably kissing at each of them. There was a smile on the other woman's lips and warmth in her hands as she caught against a face so suddenly perfectly precious to her that she felt as though any headway she'd made moments before was slacked dead into the gutter. Because he laughed into the way Gemma spoke to him, an unexpected boyishness flushing his face as he kissed chastely onto the older woman's lips.

And at the upturn of his jaw, his eyes glancing outward as Gemma moved on to Trager, she forced the jealousy from her face. Tried to anyhow. And miserably failed at the trying before he'd found her with glittered up eyes.

But his smile stayed warmly appreciative as his head cocked into a questioning angle in her direction, blinking a slight confusion as he jammed his gloves into his back pocket. He'd already dumped his helmet to the handle bars, smirking his glance away momentarily as Quinn laid an affectionate clap against his back. When he looked back toward her she matched the smile that he was aiming in her direction, lungs locking up a little as his left hand lifted and he curled his fingers at her in a motion to draw her forward. Ally thinned her eyes and shook her head slightly, scattering a look over everyone else before catching a glance back.

He braced his stance, boots flat as he let his tongue run his teeth, his features running hardened as he turned his fingers over and pointed downward to the space directly in front of him.

The unbreakable and demanding movement of him at once annoyed the hell out her and made her lean forward slightly into doing exactly what he'd asked.

It wasn't the silent demand that made her finally move toward him.

It had been the grin he banked at her as he caught the almost forward sway of movement.

Ally moved slowly toward him, watching the way most of the others were already moving back inside just to avoid the brashly humored and unavoidably charming way he was watching her. She caught the way Gemma was still leaned into her son's arm, her voice low as she spoke up into his smirking jaw but she passed by it silently, forcing her glance forward into the way Chibs was already stretching a hand out to reach against her belt as she got close enough for him to draw her in on a tight tug.

"Hey." She smirked into the roughly made draw of his hand angling her hips up into his, hands catching along his forearms as he pried them into a single pressing stance.

"Don't put yourself apart, love." He hushed into her with roughed whisper, his hands lifting to catch her jaw up. "Not if you plan on stayin'."

The calm and sure assertion in his eyes was enough to let her relax her hips forward tighter into his, her hands gripping leather and a sudden smile raking his lips before he flicked his left hand down round enough to tug her hand upward as he kissed hard against her, lips pressing damn near bruising on hers. His palm loosened off her as she let him lean an arch to her spine, his arms closing around her as he drove his tongue along hers so forcefully that she whimpered. Her fingers trapped against his face, both hands laying his cheeks so that she could wipe on flushed skin as his teeth scraped on her tongue and then nipped along her bottom lip. She thought he was finished but he just brought on another groaning round that made her lungs catch for a lack of oxygen as she finally just let her arms lay against his shoulders. Ally pulled from the kiss hard, driving her forehead into his forward pressing as he licked a smile along his pinked lips. His eyes dipped closed as he intentionally angled his thigh between hers and jerked her into the way he was riding her tighter into his groin.

"That was both cocky and stupid." She whispered into his ear as he roughed his beard and lips along her flushed jaw and throat. "Thank you."

"Never been much accused of bein' a wise man." His tongue preceded the nick of his teeth against her neck and she couldn't save herself from smiling into it, catching the back tracked glance Gemma made toward them as she paused at Red Woody's door and Ally let the smile ride thicker before she turned her lips into a kiss on his ear. "I didn't know if you'd really come."

She ignored the slight shading of guilt in his admittance, head cocking over the way he lifted his eyes to meet hers, "You think I didn't notice, Telford?"

"Notice what?" he was suddenly smirking again, that boyish mischief gracing his face as he met her eyes in a sort of humored shamelessness.

Her palm faded off his shoulder and slicked down the leather sleeve so that she could press against the heat that radiated off the blood knotted fabric cinched on his arm.

He winced a little into her cupped palm, shrugging the other shoulder in an attempt to play a ploy of adorable. "It's nothin'."

"You're an ass." She shunted into him, frowning into how flaringly hot it felt under her palm. "It needs to be taken care of."

"Plenty of hours left to tonight." He clipped a chaste kiss against her jaw that had her jolting in a surprise at his near giddy energy. "You stayin' then, Lieutenant?"

"I don't wanna stay here all night, Filip." She shook her head in an apologetic dismay that paled her in the bright spot lighting. "It hasn't really been the most comfortable - "

"I know." He agreed softly. "But I need to wrap a few things up. Say goodnight."

She angled him a tightened up look of concern that had his jaw dipping a fraction.

"C'mon, Ally. I'll let y'drive me home this time. Yeah?"

"Lie." She murmured into the way he was already catching her fingers up in his left hand.

The grin he banked her matched the shrugged sway of his shoulders backwards, tugging her into moving with him as his boots sounded the pavement. "Probably."

"I'm not sleeping alone tonight, Filip." She aimed over him accusatorily, even as she let him pull her toward Red Woody's door.

His brow arched into a guttered and roughly accented hush of tone, "Y'may not end up sleepin' at all, Althea. You're lookin' awfully good t'me right now."

The teasing shrug of amused agreement she gave him had him laughing as he turned toward the door, her fingers still latched up in his.

* * *

He would have felt a shade of apology in some part of his limbs for lying if her hand wasn't so damn warmly cradled unmoving between his legs. The press of her palm was shunted tightly against half an unavoidable erection as he kept up a rubbing circling pattern on the back of her hand, his jaw angled toward her even as he kept his eyes on the road, left hand against the wheel. The smell of her was as close as she could cloud it in the small space of the car, her other hand closed up into his ribs, up under his arm as her forehead laid gently just above the wrap of bloodied of fabric.

"Is it done?" she murmured softly into ragged leather.

"Y'don't - "

"I do need to know." Her jaw lifted into the sharpened argument. "I'm not asking you to tell me details, Filip. But I need to know that it's done. You know that."

"Aye." His jaw lifted into a sudden flick of distaste. "It's done."

Ally lifted her head from the flushed heat on his arm, "Thank you."

He flinched into the whispered words, nodding minutely before closing his fingers against her wrist as his voice guttered low. "And didn't I tell you that he wouldn't have you too?"

"You did." She agreed into a sadly softened press of her lips along his jaw.


	49. Chapter 49

He'd given her a cocky snort of humor when she'd offered the wine and pulled the whiskey from her cupboard instead. And she couldn't help but smile into the fidgeting way he was perched up onto her kitchen counter, boots hanging and the half empty whiskey bottle tipped against his lips at an awkward angle as he kept his jaw down to watch her slowly carefully hands.

"If you don't stop it they're gonna be uneven." Ally drew one hand back, eyes rising into the way he waited until she'd paused to swig back on the bottle, her right hand sidelong pressed into the flushed skin of his arm as she held the needle still.

Chibs dropped a grin down over her, letting the bottle bank back between his thighs as he winked and searched over the raw and ripped up skin, "You're doin' fine, love."

"Stop moving or you'll end up with a scar." She leaned back in, pressing a palm to his bicep to keep him stalled and growling exasperation as he leaned tighter into her on a whiskeyed breath of lowered haunted heat.

"Y'think I'm worried about scars, Ally?"

She shot a quickly apologetic glance up at him and he just gave her a smiling shake of the head before lifting the bottle toward her.

"Relax, darlin'." He whispered, jaw upping a fraction as he aimed the lip of the bottle to her mouth, a mischief sparked in velveted eyes as he tipped a swallow into her mouth. "Evenly spaced and just keep breathin'."

Ally let her tongue lay along the leftover mossed taste on her bottom lip, lifting her eyes in a silent pleading as he dropped a smirk against her mouth. The groaning he traced on her tongue with his own had her pressing her palm tighter and flush to the flourish of heat coming off his skin. He was still smiling wildly when he lifted his head, pulling another strong swallow off the bottle.

"Jesus, Filip." Her palm caught the Jameson on the way down, prying it from his fingers and reaching across him, the stitching hand stilled at his arm as he watched her set the bottle with the first aide supplies he'd snagged from Red Woody.

"Takin' my drink away again, Lieutenant?" his glance darkened over her in a hedge of annoyance, catching against her shirt and tugging as she straightened once again.

"I want you clear later." She murmured as she went back to laying slow stitches into his arm, letting him finger against fabric. "Sit still."

"True Scotsman doesn't get whiskey dick." He muttered and reached back for the bottle, palming it back between his legs but not lifting it into his lips.

"Well that's bullshit." She eyed up at him in brief glance of dry sarcasm, catching the grin he panned into her otherwise quiet kitchen. "Six inches over and it would have collapsed your lung, Filip."

"Thievin' outta Time's pockets." He cast a glance over her focused face as he exhaled. "It's what I've been doin' since I was eighteen."

"Time's gonna catch you red handed one of these days." She started tightened up knots in the sutures, brow furrowed as she tried to keep them close to the skin.

"Why d'ya think I won't let go of what I've already taken, sweetheart?" his eyes had kept a sort of teasing but also drawn darker into an obvious prowling as he let his glance ride intentionally slowly down the front of her.

"You realize that the more you drink the more you call me by everything you can think of besides my given name?"

"Savin' it." He tsk-ed a teasing noise against his cheek as he watched her reach across him again, bottle tucked between his legs and his hand stroking up under the hem of her shirt so that he could trace a tease against her own scar as she picked up the scissors.

"For?" she taunted playfully as she cut the sutures and stretched the scissors and then a flattened palm to the counter at his side, leaning into his touching.

"When it's of the best use to me, Cu Sith." The hushed lusting in his voice dropped down the front of her as his fingers stroked higher to tease against her bra line. "And not til then."

A sudden shifting of caramel sweetened color in her eyes tipped his swayed balance between the edge of adrenaline to the sharpness of a gut low lust.

"Are we even yet?" she asked quietly into the way she tugged the bottle from between his legs, letting it to the side but holding it there as she let him pull her between his knees by fingers jerked under the elastic hem. "Marks for Dulane? My career and your club?"

The slowly made smile he gave her was both deliciously dimpling into his scars and near feral in the way it sparked a glinting into his eyes, "Damn near."

"I don't know what else you expect me to do." She murmured near pouting, head angling slack as he curled his palm enough to close against her breast, thumb tweaking past her nipple as he licked a whiskey layered kiss from her lips. "You're not playing fair."

"I'm a criminal." He hushed against her mouth. "Best get used to the injustice, Sheriff."

"Stop it." A smirk tipped over her mouth as her fist shunted into his chest playfully. "Say my name, Filip."

"I won't." he teased a wink against her, head bowed over hers as he looked over her face on a smug smile.

She scraped her teeth against her bottom lip on an annoyed squint, palms shunting against his shoulders as she stepped away from the stroke of his hand. Ally caught the lift of his jaw as he watched her back away from him, the bottle still curled in her fingers and lax at her side as she banked slow steps backwards toward the hall. Chibs sloped his hips off the counter, keeping leaned back against it as he cocked his head in watching her and let his boots balance flat, eyes narrowing in a stalking stare.

"If you're goin', leave the bottle." He cast up after her in a twitched challenge of a smile.

Ally's shoulder shunted up in a catching counter of his objection, swinging the bottle softly between them, "If you're staying, get your own."

"I want the one I've already taken." Chibs hazed his voice low after her, watching her shoulder turn on him so he could graze his glance down the length of her.

"See what wanting gets you, Telford."

He just grinned into the way she was slinging back a long swallow as she fully turned away from him, culling his voice quietly threaded with heat. "Gets me you, Althea."

The slow angled turn of her shoulders led up into the rise of her jaw, eyes sparked up in that same owned knowing he'd found on her before, this time clipped with a haughty surety that angled her shoulders back as she completely turned. Chibs let his smile relax into a comfortable and peaceful warmth, holding the settle of her gilded glance as her shoulders lax on a sigh.

"Come to bed." She murmured, bottle still looped by one palm while the other hand tipped in his direction, fingers stretched down and out toward him. "I told Gemma I'd let you do anything you want to me."

His brow arched high into the suddenly widening grin, "Don't doubt y'did. You match her in wills, love. Y'don't think I see what you're doin' there?"

Ally blinked him a smile so very sweetened that he groaned into the way it softened every trace of her, pressing off the counter as she twitched her fingers impatiently to draw him closer. "I just want what I've already taken."

He shied an angle to his jaw, letting her fingers press along his chest as he stepped into the angled tensing of her body. "Have you yet?"

"Scotty," she let her head angle into the way he was letting his jaw shy closer to hers, voice lulling into a smugly low whisper as she traced fingertips teasing down the front of him, "if you don't want me owning what the club doesn't, you better get the hell out. Because that's the closest to compromise you're gonna get out of me."

"We even now, Ally?" he was tugging the bottle from her fingers while his other hand curved onto her hip, prying her hips flush to his as he stepped her backwards into the hall, smiling into the way she caught into his cut to keep balance as she aimed their steps together. "Marks for Dulane? Your career and my club?"

"No discussion of business. No questions about work." She nodded the words into his lips, kissing him softer than he'd expected from her, both her hands catching along his cheeks as he treaded her down a familiarly carpeted hall. "No porn pussy. Diosa either."

"Croweaters are still good though, yeah?" A smile clipped his lips up as he caught her up into the doorframe of her bedroom, hips jutting her flush into the cornered angle as he lifted the bottle and took a shrugging swallow.

He coughed the whiskey tripped laugh up from his suddenly aspirated lungs as her fist jammed hard into the lowest bracket of his ribs, the bottle stilled in the air at their side as he searched over the accusatory pale stillness of her face. Chibs cocked a hardened look over her, letting his eyes slim as he caught the intentionally shaded darkness of her eyes, suddenly realizing that her hair seemed a fraction longer than it had been the first time he'd seen it grace her shoulders.

"No then?" he murmured his head closer to hers. "That sounds sure enough like you're puttin' on limits y'may not deserve yet."

"Oh, but I fucking do." Ally jerked the clutched buckle of his belt undone with a tightened wrist, the other hand already sloped up under leather to dig into his shirt as she pulled him closer. "Even?"

He looked over the fierce catch of brightly dark eyes, melting into the heat she was tangling him into. "Even."

"Then let go of the bottle."

He pouted a supposedly saddened look at her, humor still gracing his lips, "Why?"

"Because you're gonna need both hands, Scotty."


	50. Chapter 50

He'd been right in his teasing when he'd implied she'd end up sleepless. Because even as he'd finally let himself run raggedly exhausted hours before, head buried in her chest as he'd grated a growling and shuddering orgasm into her, she'd been wide eyed awake. And she'd stayed that way even as he'd slept, fitful shiftings and sleep muddled jerks of his body intentionally soothed by the way she'd turned them facing to their sides with soft touches and wordless whispered sounds. She'd wrapped a leg up against his hip to keep him bent close and she didn't think he'd even realized that he'd curled himself so tightly into the center of her body that breathing had been a difficult and counted measure of the morning hours.

She'd kept every promise she'd made when stepping into her debate with Gemma, letting him bury the remnants of the day into her and drop his guilt between them before she'd wrapped them around the shared weight of it. And regardless of what it may have made her feel when she put on the uniform, that new compromise he'd offered as he'd dropped into the sleep first, no argument about it… It settled a sort of tension that had been so long in her shoulders she didn't realize how uncomfortable the tightness had been until it was gone.

And even more surprising, the sound of a bike in her driveway didn't necessarily rouse it back on her. Not when his jaw lifted into her clavicle at the guttering sound of it shutting down but stayed there pressing instead of drawing away. The silent decision he'd made to stay unmoving was, all at once, everything she hadn't realized she'd needed from him.

"Your guard dog is here, VP." Her testing whisper didn't push him away like she'd expected. He just dug in closer and pulled her thigh higher against his hip. And that shifting broke her of being able to judge him for what he'd done the day before.

Because there was still a line of goodness in him. And it was tying her up, knotted into him as she inexplicably had been since the first time he'd really smiled.

Ally let her lungs settle into the way he'd ignored her jabbing comment and instead just laid his mouth down her breasts, his shifting closer to a whispering than an argument. Even hearing what she assumed were Trager's boots on her steps and shunting against her already battered door, it didn't reach far enough between them to pull them apart. Not with the way he was completely ignoring the world in a tacit trade for letting his mouth close against her nipple, tongue swiping it before his teeth raked against it. She couldn't help the catch of her hand against the back of his head, spine arching into the way he very suddenly dug her beneath him on a rushed turn of his hips, his knee spreading her legs apart in a more than practiced balance.

"He can wait." The sure tip of his words on damp skin held an unswayed confidence and orderly assurance that made her spine go loose under him. "I'm not ready t'leave yet."

He very rarely gave her any sort of goodbye when he tipped from the solace of her bed. She was suddenly very sure of the shift she thought she'd seen coming but hadn't once believed in. And she watched it in the composure of his face before he dropped kisses down the front of her, letting her lungs loosen a sigh as her hand following his shoulder down between her legs. She dug her nails into the back of his neck as his hands dug her lower on the mattress and he pressed his mouth between her legs. A moan lit off her when his tongue and fingers met into wetness and she damn well didn't care if his brother heard it.

His bloodied up brothers couldn't have him yet. This was still her time.

And they'd made an agreement on that without getting trapped up in words.

He sealed their quietly made deal with sure and quick fingers inside her, letting his tongue slick against her clit before he lifted his head into watching her, following the arched stretching of her spine as she dug otherwise empty fingers into her hair. And he couldn't help smiling into the sound of Tig in the kitchen as she broke off a breathy moaning that brought a wider grin over him. He'd meant to stay there, finish her on a teasing that was already making her hips drive down into the way he'd shifted his thumb back and forth on her clit, slick warmth making the movements sure as he drove his fingers tighter inside her.

"Althea." Her name was something he hadn't ever meant to want to say that way, and especially not when his brother was waiting for him and he couldn't seem to pry away from the way she was clenching down on keeping him tight and close.

But he'd wanted to see her eyes in this. Needed to see how even they'd really become.

"I hate it when you just go away, Filip." The hand she'd kept at the back of his neck was digging scrapes into his skin, her face a flushed begging that broke him into unmitigated resignation.

He wasn't going anywhere until he was finished. He wasn't leaving her without having her.

Because he was the club's. But she was so suddenly very much his.

He was a murderer and a thief, no arguments there. And what he was stealing was too damn precious to part with.

"Look at me." He demanded tightly, bemused by the fact that the sudden drive he made up over her didn't startle her so much as ride a knowing victory into the arch of her body under his.

For once, she had the good damn sense to stay hushed up and pliant, her jaw lifting her head back on the pillow to hold the searching way he studied her face. He leveled his weight into his elbows, eyes thinning into the way she'd already matched his intent with a rise of her hips and her hands already stroking the hard length of him, slicking him into a welcoming wetness that made him swallow jerkily as heat snapped open and bled through him. He couldn't breathe past how close she had him to just taking everything he could. It was a turn of vulnerability from her that was more than just endearing. It was damn near trusting.

He wasn't stealing a goddamn thing. Not at all.

She was giving it to him without her general judgmental commentary.

That was her gift of a compromise and he nodded agreement to it.

"You know what I am, Althea." He sadly whispered the words along her jaw a breath of a moment before driving roughly into her, thrusting hard into the slacked whimpering moan she let up as her hands dug up onto his arms.

"I know." She wasn't looking away from the truthful admission in his eyes, no matter how much hurt discolored the brown of them, her hands sloping up to catch and lay along his cheeks as she kept his pointed glance. "It's okay."

Ally couldn't help the tightening arch she made into the way he roughed his hips slowly into hers, driving and pulling and intentionally riding his thrusts so slowly on her that it shivered her lungs up near closed. Because he wouldn't stop looking at her, watching the colors in her eyes as he let her hands lay along her cheeks without shying away from them. And she just let him watch the acceptance of their matching movements on her face as she sighed small moanings into each slow and deep thrust he laid into her. Her nails reflexively went digging into his scarred cheeks in the same tight clutching as the muscles of her as she tightened around his length and his frame.

"We're even, love." He hushed the admittance into her lips, groaning into the driving kiss it brought from her as she pulled him even closer and tighter, clenching him into coming roughly as he let her bring him close. Too close. But too close had become exactly close enough to what he needed on the edges of all the shit that broke him down.

"Come on then." He whispered raggedly as he dug his hand between them, forcing his fingers to find purchase between how tightly she'd tugged them, his hips still shivering into her as he found her clit and rubbed hard against it. "Meet me, Cu Sith."

"We've already met, Filip." Her eyes glittered on golden as she smiled, biting down on her bottom lip as her breathing shivered, hands flat on his face. "I know who you are."

"Then give up already. I'm keepin' you, Althea." He nodded as he brought her onto an edging with quick fingers. "Stop fuckin' fightin' me on it. It's done."

"Christ, I gave up the day I met you, Scotty." The words barely caught out before her head shunted back on such a pleased moaning that he couldn't save himself from smiling into watching her shatter, lips parted and jaw high in winning.

He was near sure she'd just given him a clawing along his jaw but he wore the sting of it like another brand of badge. Her breathing was nowhere near level but her entire body had loosened calm beneath him and he enjoyed the unfettered weakness of it as he pulled from inside her and lifted his head from her sliding fingers.

"It's done." Chibs kissed against her jaw. "We're even."

She just nodded into a sated and catty curling stretch, a smug smile on her lips as her eyes lidded closed, both hands wiping sweated hair back. "You can go now, I guess."

"Fair leave now, huh?" he pinched against her in a testing teasing, swiping his tongue against her collarbone as she moaned a humor into agreement. "You're right full of yourself, Lieutenant."

Her legs clenched his hips still before he could move, the tight jerk drawing his head up to catch the lidded way she was smiling over him. "Rather be full of you again, Telford."

His jaw went to a cocked angle, a lusted grinning making his face younger, "Can't. I gotta go, darlin'."

"And come back." She whispered into her fingers strafing his cheek.

He nodded once as he laid his lips down on hers softly, "Can't seem to sleep anywhere else these days."

Her eyes held his as he winked, her fingers gracing off his jaw on another stretch, "Good."

* * *

"I got him, AJ." Trager lifted the coffee pot toward her, jaw raised into the way she met his aiming hand with her half empty cup for him to refill, "Stop worryin'. This is how it works."

"Changing of the guard?" Ally quirked the question into the way he dropped a teasingly appreciative glance over the tee and socks she'd tugged on before leaving the bedroom.

"Yeah." The taller man shunted the carafe back to its home, a hand waving in her direction so that he could point at her as he turned lithe hips along her counter, "Exactly that. It's my shift. And you gotta be okay with it for me to be okay with it."

She cocked a glance over him, a sated smile still framed on her lips as she sipped at the strong dark brew, "I think I'm okay with it."

"I think you love him more than you think you do." Tig waved his finger at her playfully before laying his palms back onto the counter, hips shifting higher against it as he shrugged forward a thoughtful glance. "And that's really fuckin' weird to me. Just sayin'."

Ally straightened up into an accusation she didn't necessarily have an argument against.

"I think you need to shut the hell up." She murmured into a warning tone, unable to drop the humor from her eyes as he met a knowing grin between them.

"Yeah. That's what I thought." He turned the bright blue of his eyes down the front of her, but it wasn't anywhere near leering – it was a softened concern that turned back up the length of her, "Seriously, I got him, Ally."

Her teeth ribbed against her bottom lip before she held the softness he was turning in her direction. "Just bring him home, Tig."

"That what this is now?" Trager's head lifted as the sound of running water ended down the hall, the shower shutting off and breaking a silence over the small house.

"Something like it." She surprised herself into the dropped admission that seemed awfully big for so few words.

"Then you got it." The quickly jerked nod he gave her was just as damn nearly surprising, bending into the way he suddenly grinned as he pushed lithe hips off the counter, "Catch ya later, Sheriff."

"Tig." Her voice tripped him still and glancing back half on his way out of the kitchen. "I'm trusting you."

The darkness of his hair seemed to pale his features as he studied her, "Naw. You're playin' the Old Lady card. Tellin' me to watch his ass when you know I'd do it anyhow? Classic Gemma."

"I am not Gemma. Or Tara."

There was a tipping surprise on his face at the quickly jerked assertion she made, her body rising up in a sudden defensive posture that made her seem a shade taller, but also more adorable in the t-shirt and bright white socks. He couldn't help smirking into the movement of her before the amusement faded off him, his eyes riding over the tensed up length of her as he gave a nodding of slow agreement. She was right. She was neither of those women. But the varied shadings of the two that merged somewhere in the warring brightness of her eyes – he knew those high rises and low swingings. He'd seen them arc before in the exact women she didn't want to be compared to.

"No, you're not, AJ." Tig shrugged it off into a slightly darker glance. "Badge sorta ruins the illusion."

"Help me make this work. I need you on my side of this, Tig." Her words hushed quieter into the kitchen, head tipped into the sounds that were coming from down the hall. There was an intentionally vulnerable questioning in her face, something asking him to help her.

It tweaked on his softness the same way most innocently asking women did.

"Haven't I been?" he shrugged at her with a blankened confusion. "I am."

"Why?"

"Because it's what he needs." It was such an easily made response and his clarity in it surprised her. "And he's my brother."

Ally flushed him a reflexively bright and warm smile. "You're a good brother."

"I know that." His humor rimmed the proud coloring of his eyes, a nod leading his jaw down as he started his steps away from her again. "And you're more than a pussy on the side."

"I know that too." She murmured her smile toward the rim of her cup, catching the sound of now familiar boot steps heading her way from the hall.

"It's my shift, Sheriff." He tipped off playfully before heading out toward his bike.

* * *

His dark eyes were still a little sleepy as he leaned his head forward into the way she was relaxed into the counter, sniffing at the coffee she was holding before he lifted her a questioning glance, "Tiggy?"

"I like it strong." She shrugged off in acceptance.

"I meant because it's just coffee." The lazed smirking he gave her was leaned into the edge of the cup, his mouth breaking against it so that she could tip it against his lips.

"I did it once, Filip. Jesus." She rolled her eyes into the way he lifted his palm into the bottom of her cup, taking it cleanly away from her so that he could continue swallowing down on it as he turned away from her, boots tucked in the other fingers as he settled into one of her kitchen chairs.

"That's a goddamn lie, Althea."

Chibs set the cup aside to the table before letting one boot dump, tugging the other on as she watched the slow stretching movement of his spine. Her eyes followed the tip of damp hair along his jaw, unconsciously stepping into the urge to catch against it so that she could run a glance along his scarred cheek to the surprised glance he gave her. It softened its own jerkiness as a smile took up onto his lips, eyes going thinner as he cocked his head into the way she was still tracing onto his jaw, wiping apologetically onto the scratch she given him.

"You're prowlin' Cu Sith." A half smile merged with wondering in his eyes. "Why stalk me, huh?"

"Your smile." She murmured the same response she'd given him before, knowing it was familiar to him when his face brightened farther awake.

"Sure." He grinned as he leaned forward to tug on the other boot. "And that's what I thought, Lieutenant."

She let her fingers wipe along his cut as she angled along his back, taking back her cup as his shoulders shunted back quickly and intentionally into the way she was pressed on leather. His hand caught along her wrist, keeping it pressed along the worn and warm fabric as he turned his face into her forearm, letting his forehead press into her skin. Ally just tipped a quizzical look down over the stretch him, letting him lean into the closeness as she sipped on her coffee.

Her head angled into a sighed humor as his beard roughed the skin of her wrist, "We can't actually stay like this all day, Scotty. You gotta go, remember?"

"Aye," he pushed off the press of her skin and leaned his palms into his knees on a long exhalation, standing into a turn that had him closer than she'd expected, his eyes a whole new level of velveted darkness. "I know."

"Take care of Tiggy." She teased at him. "He's a sweetheart. Ya know, for a criminal."

The arched brow and cocked glare he panned over her forced a smirking up on her features and he shook his head slowly in response. "He's already got himself a girl, Althea. Sorta."

She just grinned into the tweak of amusement coloring his eyes as his fingers caught up against her shirt and pried her forward, her fingers tapping his leather. "See ya later, VP."

He gave her a quick wink and it laid a comfort onto loosening shoulders as he pressed from her slowly, tugging his gloves from his pocket as he back-stepped away from her. "Damn sure y'will, Lieutenant."


	51. Chapter 51

_Author's Note: Yes, this story is listed as 'complete'. However, I made a deal with two of you that I would add a coda chapter as a holiday gift for all my wonderful reviewers. It was so absolutely wonderful to fall back in with these two characters, even if they don't belong to me. I love them dearly. I hope you enjoy the extra chapter and enjoy your holidays!_

* * *

"I committed no crime today, Lieutenant." His eyes were a glazed with a tired but intentional watching, lips slightly parted as he leaned up into the frame of the door, all warmed leather and denim as he slowly pried his gloves off stretched fingers. "Didn't perpetuate a one."

She smiled lazily into the way she'd laid her head sidelong onto the back edging of the tub, shoulders laxed back as she caught the slacking of his jaw, his tongue running his teeth as he stayed unmoving. Ally lifted her shoulders in a slowly intentional taunt of shrugging, damp hand lifting from too warm water so that she could catch against the condensation layered wine glass.

"You want a prize, Telford?" she murmured wryly into the rim, letting a slip of the dark liquid lay her tongue as his eyes followed the damp bend of her wrist, his own hands stalled in a pausing. "You're staring, Scotty."

"Technically," he murmured the words quietly into the way he shifted enough to stuff his gloves into his back pocket, chest swaying forward even as his arm stayed balanced into the doorframe, "I'm no criminal at the moment."

"On furlough?" she smirked her eyes away from the subtle simmered heaviness of brown eyed wanting and smugly let her head roll farther back, blindly settling the glass back to the tub edge.

"Keepin' you an honest woman today, my love." There was a chippy mischief to the tone he laid across the otherwise hushed room.

Ally snorted as her eyes dipped closed, "Put out or get out, Filip. Water's getting cold."

She kept a quietly leaning lesson of patience before grinning sightlessly into the sound of his belt buckle loosening, her shoulders instantly softening farther back as she rounded the way she'd knotted her hair up into the shower wall. She let her eyes open into the hushing creak of leather, turning her jaw a fraction enough to watch him strip his cut and lay it folded over the stretch of the sink. He was otherwise distracted in studying the length of her in clear water that smelled sugared but wistfully homey.

"You think twenty four hours of not breaking the law is going to forgive the debt you've racked up?" she loosed the question quietly into the way she watched him unbutton the leather shirt he was wearing, a lackadaisical shrug coming off his shoulders. "Huh, my good Catholic boy?"

A blushing grin rose over his face without his eyes even meeting hers and she watched him rub his hand down over his beard with another shrug. "Don't think bringin' religion into this room is necessary."

Ally smirked and leaned an unintentional sigh over the curved strength in his shoulders as he stripped shirts and let them tip off his fingers, a cocked glance of amusement perking his lips as he caught the thrummed sound off her throat. His face shifted in sure and cocky humor, belt undone and pants slung low as he kneeled into the edge of the tub.

"But I think the effort's earned me a little kindness tonight." His voice was a heat that twisted into the warm curling of water's steam, his glance intentionally shifting down the length of the way she was stretched in the tub. His arms were crouching onto the edge after nabbing the wine glass up, considering it a moment before cocking her a semi amused glance of reproach as he handed it in her direction.

"Snob." She murmured as she finished off the glass, shifting it into the corner of the shower as he laid his jaw into one forearm, eyes still craving over her as he dropped a loose wrist down. "Filip."

"Water's still warm." He countered a taunting into the way he'd dipped his fingers into sweet smelling water and wiped against her stomach, teasing a circling down around the gunshot scar.

"Then get in it." Ally caught his jaw up at her with damp fingers, letting her thumb catch along his bottom lip because she just didn't see a reason not to do so.

"Gonna be sweet to me tonight, Ally?" the teasing hush of his voice as he pressed the words into her thumb raised up a chill on her damp skin that had her pushing into the way his teeth scraped against her skin.

"I can be." Her other hand tipped over the expanse of the tub to catch his face into the way she leaned a kiss toward him, letting both damp hands slide the stretch of each scar before pulling him closer as she laid her tongue along his. The groan he gave her was less rushed and ragged and tightened up taut than usual. It was slow and appreciative and welled into a comfort zone that made her sink farther back in the water as he lifted his head slowly from the kiss.

"You okay?" she questioned softly into her damp fingers riding his forearm as he pulled his hand from the water.

"Aye." He nodded quickly, a sleeked smile riding his lips as he pressed up from the edge of the tub, turning from her to strip his leftover clothing boots first. "I'm tired, gràdhach."

Her head perked into a smirk at the affectionate rounding of his accent on another sweetened up round of Gaelic. Besides the usual nickname, he hadn't used it on her since Dulane. He hadn't otherwise brought the reference of home between them since and the softly breathing usage of it slackened her shoulders back again, a wet hand wiping against the flushed skin of her throat as he shifted back toward the tub. His fingers crowned her knotted back hair as she pushed back in the tub, drawing him into the water with her. Ally smiled into the way he simply curled her legs against the stretch of his hips, a groan grating off him that was built more of weariness than anything else, the warm water forcing his muscles to release. Her jaw shied back and to the side quickly, letting him lean his head back into her shoulder.

"Not a single crime?" she asked as she looked over the pass of his tired face, noting the way his jaw slackened loose with lips parted and his eyelids looked dark. Her hand lifted to wipe a warm dampness against his forehead as she rubbed her lips along his temple.

"None." He turned his head into shunting the words against her jaw.

"Not even coercion?"

He grunted a snort of charmed amusement, "Not even."

"What'd you just call me?"

"Nosy." He murmured his lips along her cheek. "None of yer business."

"What's happening right now, Filip?" she framed her hand against his forehead, forcing his head still as she turned a questioning look over his passivity, keeping her tone calm to avoid anything accusatory.

He gave her a slow smile but it was raked tight by a furrowing on his forehead, head tipping harder onto her shoulder as his hands brought her legs tighter around him, "Havin' a bath with a beautiful woman?"

"Don't bullshit me." Ally kissed quick and light against him, a purposeful smile laced over her lips as she wrapped her other arm against his chest, still rubbing the tension from his forehead.

"I can love on ye without bein' an ass, Althea." He shaded his face down against her throat, voice hashing tighter in a sort of embarrassed frustration. "It doesn't always have to be a fuckin' fight. I know y'can be soft so stop swipin' at me, Cu Sith."

"Okay." She whispered the murmur over his turned head, fingers tracing along his ear and catching the way he winced his head tighter into the bend of her shoulder as he stroked his fingers along her legs. "Filip?"

He grunted a questioning noise into her throat, large palm curling the muscled run of one calf so that he could press his thumb up and down along muscle.

"I do believe you're often a good man. And that your intentions are well meant." She whispered the words on him, leveling them quietly into the way she rubbed against his ear. "You wouldn't still be here if I didn't."

His voice jerked on her skin in warning worry, beard roughing her skin, "Ally."

"I'm just saying." She rubbed the words on him, feeling him shift tighter as the water shifted and swayed around them. "I see it in you, Telford. You fight for it."

"Yeah?" His accented whisper went teasing as he banked his head back again, "And what's it gotten me, Lieutenant?"

"Me." She hushed the word along his ear in a quieted way that had him groaning a full laden lust as he clutched against her thigh, her tongue teasing against his earlobe as he dug his nails into tensed up muscle. "Got you me, Scotty."

"That was devilish." He chuckled into the sweated air around them, his eyes still closed but a broad grin raking his lips.

"Well, you were good today." She shrugged both arms tighter around his shoulders, letting her hand slope down the tattooed front of his chest to flat palm on wet skin, "You let me handle the sinful stuff, huh?"

Water sluiced off his hand as his lifted his fingers into a crossing over his chest and shoulders, a groan lathing off him as her hand slid between his legs. "Fuckin' amen."

* * *

She snorted as she shook her head, steps soft on the bedroom carpet as she moved toward the bed, the lazily relaxed movements of her long lithe length drawing his head cocked up so that he could watch her. Ally just gave him a semi amused glance, the towel wrapped around her with corners tucked up into her hands as she looked over the stretched length of the way he was back on her bed, newspaper held above himself and the darkness of his glasses making his eyes seem more shaded than they truly were.

"What?" he murmured, eyes trailing the twists of damp dark hair that were still plastered along her neck and throat even though she'd kept a knot of hair up and back.

"That's yesterday's paper." She offered softly into teasing. "I've never seen you read the newspaper."

"I read, Althea." He griped at her in annoyance. "I'm not - "

"I just meant that it's cute." She whispered an interrupting hush into his sharpening, hands still clamped up into fabric as she leaned forward onto the mattress, tipping her head to search over him, "And the glasses are sexy."

Chibs smirked into the way she straddled against his waist, the still damp coolness of her skin pressing through the crisp sheet he'd tucked against his hips. He lifted the crinkled paper enough to shift a hand toward her, cocking a smirk in her direction as he tugged against the terry cloth and winked at her. Ally rolled her eyes as he drew the fabric away slowly, letting his glance drift along the front of her before he made an appreciative noise in his throat. Her head shook slowly back and forth in amusement as he clutched away the fabric fully before laying the newspaper along the front of her, riding his shoulders up so he could settled on his elbows and continue reading.

"Really?" she upped her jaw into the low questioning. "Thought we weren't going to do the things that normal couples do?"

"Hale?" he asked as he continued reading, ignoring her prodding as he squinted through an article on the mayor's most recent press conference. "Where's he land on your radar, Lieutenant?"

"Fairly intelligent but duplicitous." She shrugged into the slow murmur, her hands dropping lax against his flexed forearms so that she could stroke against his skin, "But publically charming. Socially savvy. Occasional misogynist."

His jaw lifted a fraction of a moment before he cocked a brow at her, "That last one had a bit of bite to it."

She shrugged unapologetically, curling her palms against his drawn tight arms, "I don't like the way he speaks to me."

"In what way?" the flexing of his muscles was barely perceptible and she probably wouldn't have otherwise noticed except that she felt it in the pent strength of his arms as his weight pressed into the mattress.

Ally flushed a smile over him, drawing her hands off him so that she could shift the paper to the side, crumpling it away so that she could stretch forward into the way he was leaned up as she studied the glasses he was wearing, "I'm a big girl, Filip. I can handle a suit with an attitude."

"In what way, Ally?" he repeated in a whispered hush of nervy threatening.

"He's a man, Telford." She murmured a kiss against his lips. "And he looks at me like I'm just a woman."

"You are a woman." His hips lifted up teasing into the stretch of her, head tipping slowly into the way she was still studying him. "I'm a big fan of that part."

"No, see," she lifted her fingers up to tap against his bottom lip, "there's a difference. To him, I'm just a woman."

His glance thinned heavily over her, "You watch him move, love. Y'get me?"

She blinked into the subtle intimation. "From what I hear watching Hale too closely has me putting eyes on Samcro. That really what you want, Vice President?"

"Nope." He shook his head slowly, letting his shoulders back into the pillow as he drew her down into his chest. "It's the other shiftings I want your pretty eyes on."

"I don't work for you." Ally bit down over him, drawing up higher against his chest as he shunted his hips flat and tugged at the sheet, lifting a bared knee up against her side before both his hands caught into her hair to loosen it from its knot.

"No," Chibs cocked back over her, "Y'work for Charming, yeah?"

"Yes. I do." She nodded her jaw down into his chest, letting her fingers ride his tattoos before scrawling over the letters of his daughter's name. "You're a cryptic bastard."

"And y'love it." He rubbed his fingers through her hair on a sighed breath, angling his head into the way she was silently starting another tracing of Kerrianne's name, feeling his lungs heat at the stroking of her fingertip. "She'd be a fair bit defensive of her mother but I think she'd like y'well enough anyhow. She's a good girl mostly."

"Mostly?" she turned a prized smile up at him, full appreciation for the whispered admission lighting over her face.

"Belfast isn't easy on good girls, Ally." He shied his eyes shut as he let his head sink back, letting his fingers ride back and forth along her scalp. "And her da's not a blue ribbon himself. Fi's kept her straightened up as possible."

"Why didn't you go back, Filip?" he met the honest concern in her whispered worry with a slow glance because he felt as though it was the only decent thing to do when she'd owned up the guts to ask the question.

"Wasn't my place anymore, Althea." He blinked against the obviously aching admission, shaking his head back onto the pillow. "M'not that man anymore. My life was here. And my own daughter doesn't… I'm not the father she needs me t'be. I love my girls. But I didn't belong with them. Or to them."

The flinching that discolored her eyes made them twist with more greened gold than usual. Like corroded copper.

"You wouldn't dare put me in the same room with your wife and daughter." She shunted into his chest, her body shifting to lean away but stalled into the way his hand drove up the chilled lay of her spine to catch along the back of her head.

"Ex wife." He blinked at her on an edging of assertion. "Paper's been signed a long while, Ally. Not goin' back broke a lot of things between us."

"That's why you're not fighting this as much as I thought you would." She murmured a shade of surprise over him, jaw angling into the way she watched his face.

"Fightin' what?" he squinted at her, glasses still darkening his eyes toward black.

"Me." She shrugged higher onto his chest. "And you."

"You're a constant fight, darlin'." He caught both hands up into her hair with a sleepy glance, lifting his head cockily into the way she was laying a surprised smile over him. "Keeps my head up, though. Waitin' for your next swing."

Ally let her lips brush along his, enjoying the fact he was still sifting through her hair as she let her head drop against his collarbone so that she could kiss against warm skin, "Mine."

He snorted his jaw against his shoulder, glancing down the naked stretched length of her before letting his head drop onto the pillow, "Y'like to think."

"I'll prove it, Telford."

The swift authority in her voice had him double-shot-sure that she damn well meant it. And the curled up heat of her pressing him down into a mattress that felt like assurance, it seconded her fervor. And he didn't necessarily want to fight the claiming because it felt like a choice made and a chance earned.

"Do it then, Althea." He let his eyes close into the rub of her fingertips on his chest again, spreading out the length of her cool dark hair. "Don't much think anyone could get in your way on it. You're stubborn."

"You love it, Scotty." She cheekily countered with his earlier teasing.

And he didn't necessarily want to fight that assumption either.


End file.
